A Week at Lava Springs
by general wildcat
Summary: Follow Chad and Taylor as they go through a week working at the Lava Springs Country Club. Mostly Chaylor. Rated K , some rated T. See now chapter 5! It's ice cream central at Lava Springs and for one of the Wildcats, the pressure of their job is on!
1. Monday

Ok so I was trying to see if I could write any more oneshots. I couldn't come up with any ideas and I didn't want to do anything too big like another story, since I have enough of those at the moment. But then I was looking over my HSM All Access book that my friend got me for my birthday and I saw the schedule for Lava Springs on one of the pages. And bam, you know I had a brainstorm. So one chapter for each day of the week, that should make 7 altogether. So sit back, relax, and enjoy **A Week at Lava Springs**. C=  
Disclaimer: I do not own HSM, the characters, or the All Access book…but I sure love all the pop-outs!

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"And you'll be needing this." Mr. Fulton said as he threw yet another set of golf clubs in the already heavy golf bag. "You know what, maybe you should take some extra golf balls, too." He added, giving the young caddy a full box of golf balls which had yet to be opened. Then, as if that weren't enough, he then placed some little sunhats onto the pile. "Let's not forget hats for the little ones. It's supposed to be a scorcher today. And these. And these. You know what, a couple more of these as well." Say hello to binoculars, running shoes, and extra small golf clubs for more kids.

"And that should be everything." Mr. Fulton said as he smiled. He clapped his hands together and turned to the young caddies beside him. "So, out on the green boys. It's Family Golf Day and you're going to have a lot of work to do."

Troy Bolton smiled and nodded at his boss. He was taking quite a liking to working at the Lava Springs country club. Plus, it didn't hurt that Mr. Fulton seemed to take a natural liking to him, even after the whole deal with Sharpay Evans and the talent show.

"No problem, sir. We'll get right on it." Troy promised. Then he turned to look over at his best friend Chad Danforth, who was struggling to hold everything that Mr. Fulton had handed to him. "You good with all that stuff man?"

Chad let out a heavy breath, but then shook his head. "You kidding?" he asked, even though his voice and shaky knees clearly spelled out struggle. "This is nothing."

Troy rolled his eyes. He and Chad were both dressed in the typical white clothing for caddies, along with their name tags, of course. But even without their name tags it was easy to tell them apart – mainly because of Chad's curly hair. Most people who had wanted his help since day one have asked for "Afroboy" or "Afroman" depending on the customer. The two made their way onto the green, where numerous people have been gathering. Adults, kids, even grandparents were all scattered around and preparing for the day's event. Good thing all the employees already ate lunch, or were in the process of doing so right now. It was going to be a long day.

"You look like you're having trouble with that stuff, Chad." Troy noticed as they walked up the hilltop to enter the first part of the golf course.

"You kidding? Nah, not me." Chad shook his head. "Piece of cake."

Troy stopped to look behind him. Chad was moving quite slowly. And if he wasn't as strong as he was, surely everything would have tumbled to the ground from the minute Fulton started piling it on top of him.

"Hey it's not my fault Fulton likes me best." Troy said modestly.

"Yeah dude, we all know you're Fulton's favorite." Chad sighed. "Look can we just keep moving?"

"Alright man, alright." Troy replied. "Just be glad we're on with the same family. If it wasn't so big we wouldn't be able to talk while we worked."

"Tell me about it. We'd be with completely different families." Chad said. "Who thought of this Family Golf day anyway?"

"Beats me. But remember, we're professionals." Troy held up a finger.

Chad laughed. "Rich man. Real rich."

As the boys made their way to their designated hole and family, they passed by another friend and co-worker of theirs. Taylor McKessie, to be exact.

"Hey Taylor." Troy greeted with a wave as he walked by.

Taylor looked up from her clipboard. "Hey Troy." She replied with a polite smile. Her smile only warmed when she saw Chad. "Hey Chad."

A goofy smile appeared on Chad's face as he turned to Taylor. He eyed her holding her clipboard and pen with her professional-like multicolored dress on…he couldn't even form words in his mind half the time he was around her. They were on again off again, currently as far as the past couple of weeks were considered on again, but that didn't always make it easier on Chad. He eyed her as he tilted his head from behind his giant pile.

"Hey Taylor." He tried waving to her, but as soon as his hand was taken away from his pile, the tumbled down out of his grasp and down the hill. Chad lost his balance and rolled down the grassy area along with them. Chad ended up at the bottom seconds later, with his big bag of golf clubs somehow falling on top of him and pinning him to the ground. A groan escaped his mouth as it landed on him and he could already hear laughs or comments from the families. He had seen that coming. Troy couldn't help but laugh at his friend either. In his opinion, it was on the verge of comic genius. And hey, Chad always was the funny one. Taylor had gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. That was some fall Chad had taken. With him having trouble getting the golf bag off of him, she walked down the hill to help him.

"Are you ok?" she asked, putting down her clipboard and trying to grab the strap on the bag.

"Yeah. I've had worse falls than this." He replied, not too disappointed about his fall anymore. "You can laugh if you want to."

"No. I couldn't possibly." She shook her head.

"Sure you could." Chad shrugged. "It was pretty hilarious."

"Well, it kind of was." She admitted, pulling the bag off of him. "Why were you carrying so much anyway?"

"Eh, Fulton's idea." Chad replied sitting up. "It's not that bad or anything."

"You're not hurt are you?" she asked.

"No, not at all." Chad shook his head. Wait a minute…what was he saying? This was a perfect opportunity. He wasn't letting it get away. "I mean…" He started moaning and grabbing his wrist. "I'm hurt. I'm hurt bad. The pain is unbearable!"

Troy watched from where he was and tried to hold in a fit of laughter. Oh yeah, real smooth Chad.

Taylor smiled and shook her head. She could see from a mile away that he was faking, but no one would want to hear him moan and complain all day. "Here, does this make it any better?" she asked, planting a peck on his wrist.

"Yes." Chad nodded. He was loving how this was turning out. Maybe he could try and get a step further. "I think I hurt my lips, too." He puckered them up, hoping it would turn out the way he wanted to.

Taylor just giggled and put a finger on them. "Nice try Chad. Tell me that again when you fall on your face." She was about to get up when she remembered something. "And if you say how you butt is hurting from this too, don't go there."

Chad nodded and tried speaking with his puckered lips against Taylor's finger. "Msage cved." He replied, trying to say 'message received'.

She giggled once more and took her finger away from his mouth. She then moved a little on the grass to help him collect all of the fallen items. Chad followed her lead and started gathering everything bad together.

"So what are you doing today?" he asked.

"Mainly being in charge of Family Golf Day." She answered. "The list of caddies and golf pros is already finalized and the pros are scheduled to arrive in a half hour. I need to double check everyone's reservations and continue assigning them to their designated areas. Some will be starting at the first hole here and others will start at hole ten, and because we have such a large group everyone will only be able to get through nine holes. We have the more experienced families on the latter ones. And then I have to contact Mr. Fulton so at the dinner afterward he can hand out award certificates for all of the participants."

Chad whistled. "Sounds like you've got your work cut out for you."

"This is what I signed up for when I agreed to be in charge of all events. For the most part, anyway." She shrugged her shoulders. "Everything has to be approved and finalized by Mr. Fulton."

"Do you have to breathe with his permission, too?" Chad raised an eyebrow.

"Thankfully, no." she shook her head. "He's not that strict."

"But is he worse than Darbus?" Chad pointed out.

Taylor thought about it for a minute. It was a challenging question to answer. "The summer's only half way over. There's still time to decide."

"True." He nodded. "Well, maybe we'll see each other on the golf course. You know, with me caddying and you supervising."

Taylor looked at him and smiled. "I look forward to it."

Chad smiled back and started putting everything back together in the pile.

"You know, this is really great actually." She said as she got the last of the objects together. "I'm glad that Troy's going to be here."

"You are?" Chad asked, confusion in his eyes.

"Yeah." She nodded. "I was a little afraid he wasn't going to show up today or Mr. Fulton would have him in the kitchen instead. It's good to have him around. Troy's actually great at the job."

"Is he now?" Chad replied, trying to figure out how to interpret all of her words.

"Most definitely." Taylor continued. "I never really knew that Troy was such a great guy before. It gives us more of a chance to talk and get to know each other. He's pretty fun."

"Oh…well…yeah, he is. That's, um…great." Chad replied. He had no idea how to take all of this. Taylor was praising Troy?

"Everyone please gather around! Arrive at your designated areas. The professional golfers have arrived!" they heard Mr. Fulton announce from the hilltop.

Taylor turned back to Chad. "So I'll see you out on the green then?"

"Yeah. I guess you will." Chad nodded, not sure what else to say.

Taylor smiled at him. "Great." Then she picked up her pen and clipboard and walked back up the hilltop. And as her back was turned, Chad's face fell. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. All that praising about Troy, all those compliments about him, just her mentioning his name…those were things Chad heard all the time from other girls. He never expected to hear them from Taylor. Gabriella Montez was the one who was supposed to be all over Troy. That was his girlfriend. But Taylor…she was a different story entirely. When the status quo at their school was broken, Chad was the first one Taylor warmed up to, not Troy. At least…that's what Chad thought. Unless she'd been suing him to get to his best friend this whole time. And their whole relationship was a lie. That could only mean one thing.

Taylor was completely ga-ga for Troy!

-TT?—TT?—TT?—TT?—TT?-

Troy was looking over for the last of the golf balls on the course. Some of those kids had really hit them hard…and out of sight. Then again, the adults ended up doing that, too. It was pretty crazy. But what Troy didn't get was that the entire time Family Golf Day was going on, Chad didn't say anything to him. As soon as he was done talking to Taylor, it was the silent treatment. Even when Troy teased him about it, Chad wouldn't fight back. That wasn't like him at all. They couldn't have been off again already…could they?

"Hey Troy?"

The blue-eyed boy picked his head up to see Taylor walking over to him. "Oh hey Taylor. What's up?" he replied.

"Have you talked to Chad at all today?" she asked, stopping in front of him. "I've tried calling his cell phone and texting him but he never responded. Is he helping you clean up out here?"

"I don't know." He shook his head. "I haven't talked to Chad all day. He gave me the silent treatment."

Taylor quirked an eyebrow. "What?"

"Yeah. After he talked to you, he didn't say two words to me." Troy replied.

"But he was just fine when I talked to him." Taylor said.

"So you guys didn't fight or anything?" he asked.

Taylor put a hand on her hip and looked at him doubtfully. "Troy, you know very well that if Chad and I were fighting people in New Zealand would be complaining about it."

Troy tilted his head. "They the ones on the opposite time zone as us?"

Taylor hit her forehead. Surely all guys couldn't be this clueless. "Our summer is their winter. Our right is their left. Does that answer your question?"

"Not really." He replied.

"Then never mind." Taylor shook her head. "So you have no idea what was wrong with Chad?"

"No." Troy answered. "The most I heard from him was muttering some stuff when he had to find golf balls or something."

"Is there any chance you could find out what's wrong with him?" Taylor asked. "I have to start getting everyone seated for the dinner right now, so I can't do anything. And he always listens to you."

"Except for that one time I told him Sharpay was in love with him and he ran in the direction of Ryan instead." Troy muttered.

"What was that?" she asked suspiciously.

"Nothing." He replied quickly. "So uh…I'll send you a text when I find something out. We'll meet back over here."

"Ok. Thanks a lot Troy." Taylor said. She turned on her heel and went back to the country club so she could get everything together.

Troy raised an eyebrow and scratched his head as she left. There was just one thing he couldn't get out of his head. "New Zealand thinks left is right?"

-CT?—CT?—CT?—CT?—CT?-

Chad sighed with relief as he threw the last of the load into the storage room. Golf balls, golf clubs, the whole enchilada. No more gigantic piles for the rest of the day. It was bad enough carrying them right after lunch and then dropping everything. Not to mention how he had to chase golf balls all day and ended up getting hit in numerous places courtesy of those players with natural bad aim. But having to carry everything back to the country club and into the storage room made it even worse. He disliked it very much. And what he disliked even more than that was his girlfriend on the verge of flirting with his best friend. Chad had never felt more hurt or used than he did today.

"Hey Chad."

And speak of the devil, there was Troy now. Chad rolled his eyes as he saw the guy come into the room with his way lighter load and drop everything down gently. This was just what he needed - a reminder of who he was losing his girl to.

"What do you want?" he muttered.

Troy walked over to Chad and leaned up against the desk near the curly-haired boy. "I wanna know what your problem is. Ever since you talked to Taylor you've been giving me the silent treatment. Tuning me out of your life. I wanna know why."

"Oh, like you don't know." he replied sarcastically.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Troy asked with a quirked eyebrow.

Chad sent a glare in Troy's direction. "You know what, I should've known you were gonna do this. Every time we were after the same girl they'd always choose you over me cause they thought you were better. Why's this time any different?"

"Whoa, rewind there a second man. Last time I checked we both have girlfriends. Not the same girl." Troy replied, holding his hands up.

"Except you're overlooking one detail. It's not me my girlfriend wants to date. She wants you." Chad snapped.

"What?" Troy laughed. "You're joking right?"

"Do I look like I'm joking?" he questioned.

Troy couldn't help but keep laughing. "Wait...so you're saying your girlfriend wants me? Taylor?" he asked in between fits of laughter. "Are we talking about the same girl? About five foot three maybe, blackish hair, dark skin, smart...?"

"No, we're talking about someone important like Jessica Simpson." Chad said sarcastically.

"Really? I see no relation between the two." Troy shook his head. "Now if you were talking about a different singer or actress that would be a different story."

"That's not what I'm talking about!" Chad insisted.

"Cause you know, I think she kind of looks like a different actress." Troy continued. "What's her name...? Somewhere in her twenty's, from South Carolina, performed on Dancing with the Stars...."

"Shut up!" Chad insisted. "You always do this to me Troy. You always take everything from me. I had a shot at being captain, but because your dad's the coach and you did such a good job last year, you get the job instead of me. I almost got the last of the New York Deli at lunch and you had to ask if you could cut me in the line just because you had to make up a test as soon as you finished eating. And now the one girl who I thought liked me for me and not cause I'm friends with you or anything wants you over me. You're so great you should have two girlfriends!"

"Chad that's not what I mean-" Troy started.

"I know exactly what you mean." Chad interrupted.

"Dude if ti weren't for me none of you would even be working here!" he gasped.

"That has to do with nothing. You wanted the summer of your life, well guess what, you're taking that away from me, too." Chad said coldly.

Troy shook his head at the guy who he thought was his brother. "You know what? You can just put all of this equipment away yourself." He pushed himself away from the desk and walked towards the door.

"Why? So then you can take all the credit and make Fulton love you, too?" Chad demanded.

Troy wasn't going to hear any more of that. Instead of making a counter attack, he stormed out the door and slammed it behind him.

-???—???—???—???—???-

"Hey Troy, I'm glad I caught you."

Troy turned his head as he saw Taylor walking over to him. After the more than minor squabble with Chad, Troy had finished what he was supposed to do and then clocked out. It was nearly dark outside and he was sitting on a bench outside the country club waiting for one of his parents to pick him up. He'd drive himself home if he could, but he didn't have his own car yet...not since his father had to start working on fixing the beat up old truck that was supposed to be Troy's. Again.

"What's up?" Troy asked, trying not to sound exasperated.

"I wanted to talk to you about Chad. Did he say anything?" Taylor inquired as she took a seat next to him.

"Oh he said a lot." Troy nodded.

"Such as?" she raised an eyebrow.

"Apparently I'm a backstabber now." Troy answered.

"What?" she asked. "Chad really said that?"

"Among other things. I'm surprised he hasn't called me a quack yet."

"Come again?"

"Oh, you know. When a cartoon character is about to say some really bad or hurtful word and you hear a duck quacking instead."

"Right..."

Now Troy was getting off the subject. There was no way that what Chad said could be true. Why on Earth would Taylor like him? There were no signs of flirting or anything? Or maybe it was all some trick instead. What if everything really happened behind closed doors? Then what, she'd lock the door and plant a kiss on him then let him go? How devious could a person get?

"Troy?"

He shook his head and looked at Taylor. So many questions were running through his mind that he had completely tuned her out. "I'm sorry, what were you saying?"

She rolled her eyes slightly. "I was asking if you found out what was wrong with Chad."

"Oh I found something bugging him alright, but it doesn't make any sense to me." Troy replied.

"Any chance you could elaborate please? I should be submitting an overall schedule for tomorrow to Mr. Fulton and if I don't do that soon he'll have me stay a little later." Taylor said.

"Chad kept talking about all of the things I stole from him." he replied.

"Well, he does often feel like the second best compared to you." Taylor stated. "Every time he's great at something it turns out that you're better. Then he gets ignored and all of the praise goes to you."

"How would you know any of that?" Troy asked.

"I've been in a few situations with Gabriella. I have nothing against her, believe me. But I used to get the highest grades before she came along. So sometimes we're in friendly competition and the teachers begin praising her more than they do me because they're that impressed with her." she explained.

"Ok..." Troy said slowly, trying to figure out how to phrase this. "So if it feels like maybe once in a while Gabriella can steal something from you," which he hardly doubted Gabriella would ever do to even her arch nemesis, "what would happen if you thought she was stealing your boyfriend?"

Taylor tilted her head. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Just think about it hypothetically." Troy replied.

"Well..." she thought about it for a minute before giving an answer, "I'd get a bit jealous. I'd feel inferior to her because someone that I really liked would just be using me to get to her and put her on such a high pedestal while I'm pushed aside."

Troy gave a nod. "That's what Chad thinks is going on right now." With a slightly confused look from Taylor, he put it bluntly. "Taylor do you like me?"

"I'd say I'd have to like you or else I'd be convincing my best friend day and night not to be dating you." she replied.

"No, I don't mean like that." he shook his head. "I mean as more than a friend?"

"What?" she laughed. "Where would you get an idea like that?"

"That's what Chad thinks." Troy replied. "He thought you were using him to get to me and that I'm stealing you from him."

"That's ridiculous. Why would I ever want to date you?" Taylor continued laughing at the idea.

Troy blinked. "Um hello, I'm sitting right here."

"Sorry Troy, I didn't mean it like that." she said. "I mean, I can point out numerous decent qualities about you and I could pinpoint most of your flaws. I see why Gabriella is crazy about you, but that's not me. I'm perfectly happy with Chad."

"Well you should probably go tell him that." Troy said. "Come on, we're totally wrong for each other."

"Oh yeah, totally. I'm not much of a blue eyed fan." Taylor shook her head.

Troy scoffed and played along. "Oh yeah, well I don't like stubborn girls either."

"And you daydream too much." Taylor pointed out.

Troy turned his head to her. "Boss woman."

Taylor responded in the same way. "Lunkhead basketball player."

"Perfectionist."

"You're one, too."

"I know you are but what am I?"

"Oh I'll tell you what you are."

"Ok then tell me."

By now their faces were awfully close. They both just quirked their eyebrows and stared at each other. It was all heating up into something. This had never happened between them before. Surely there was a logical explanation - both of them had to know that. But any quarrels the two could have had in the past were never like this. It was so...different. There was some excitement to it. Some suspense. like there was something just waiting to happen. And before either of them knew it, something did happen. Slowly and briefly, but surely enough, their lips locked. It only occurred for perhaps a second at most, but it happened. Both pulled away at an instant and looked away. Something about it didn't feel right. It felt...weird. And not the good kind of weird. The not right weird. It wasn't so much as a 'that wasn't supposed to happen' thing, but more of a spur of the moment. And from their reactions, one thing was certain: neither of them liked it.

"I...I think I'll go find Chad now. See if he's still around." Taylor finally said, breaking the silence.

"Yeah, yeah." Troy nodded quickly. "I'll...call Gabriella then."

"To help her wash that away?" she assumed, referring to the kiss.

"Maybe." Troy said innocently.

"You get right on that then." Taylor nodded. "See you on Wednesday."

"Why, what's tomorrow?" he asked as he pulled out his cell phone.

"I have off tomorrow." she answered.

"Possibly planning a little something with Chad?" Troy teased.

"Maybe." she replied innocently. "Later Troy."

"See ya Taylor." Troy nodded dialing Gabriella's number.

Taylor removed herself from the bench and headed back towards the country club. Hopefully Chad was still around. She need to wash that away herself.

-I give up—I give up—I give up—I give up—I give up-

Chad scowled to himself as he constantly scrubbed at the last dish. He didn't know how, but one way or another he had agreed to finish washing the dishes for his friend Jason Cross so he could leave on time. Ironically, Chad didn't mind staying late. He had some steam that he needed to blow off. He continued scrubbing at the same place on the dish over and over again. It wasn't just the stain that wouldn't come off, it was his anger that just wouldn't go away. Therefore, his current solution was to take it out on the dish. He was going into a more happy place now. the more he scrubbed at the dish the more stress that he got rid of. But it didn't last too long; moments later he heard the kitchen door open.

"I'm busy right now, go away." was his instinctive answer.

Though his eyes were not taken off the dish, Chad knew there was still someone in there. He could hear their footsteps. He was just about to drop the dish and turn around and tell them to get lost when all of a sudden someone came from right behind him. Next thing Chad knew he was pulled into a kiss. His eyes widened to see that it was Taylor who pulled him in and then let go seconds later. He stared at her wide-eyed with a gaped mouth.

"Where did that come from?" he gasped.

"That was for no reason." she replied. She folded her arms and just smiled, looking at a very confused Chad. Taylor's smile then turned into a smirk as she pushed him lightly, nearly causing him to fall backwards.

"What was that for?" Chad asked, almost losing his balance.

"That was for your crazy imagination." she scolded. "You thought I was in love with Troy?"

"Who told you that?" Chad questioned.

"Troy did. I asked him to talk to you and find out why you didn't answer your cell phone when I tried to reach you and why you were giving him the silent treatment." Taylor answered in the same tone.

"So he told you that I thought you were in love with him?" Chad replied.

"Those weren't his exact words but from the way he was talking it sure sounded like that's what was going through your mind." Taylor put her hands on her hips. "Chad where would you get such a ridiculous idea?"

"You had so many compliments about him."

"All of which were true. Let's be honest, he's much better with golf than you are but you can outrun him in track and field easily."

"And all the talking about him?"

"We were by the golf course. He's on the golf team, he's a caddy, he's an instructor here. All golf-related."

"Then what about how happy you were that he was there?"

"If he wasn't going to be a caddy I was going to ask him if he could supervise!"

Chad raised an eyebrow. He was even more confused now. "What?"

Taylor sighed heavily. She couldn't believe Chad was so clueless. "Mr. Fulton put me in charge of all of the events. But I couldn't watch all of the families on both sides of the golf course at once. I was going to ask Troy if he could help supervise the latter holes of the course. Then I saw he was going to caddy with you and I knew that he would still keep an eye on everyone else like he was supposed to and help avoid confusion. You were just going to do your job, carry heavy equipment, and talk to yourself the whole time."

Chad held up a finger to protest, but then he slowly put it down. "Ok...so you are right about that."

"And you thought I was using you to get to Troy?" she questioned. "Chad if I had any feelings for Troy don't you think I would have been envious of Gabriella or start making plans to break them up?"

"Ok you have a point about that too..." he started.

She sighed and softened her tone a little. "Chad it was never at any point in time Troy that I had anything for. I know opposites attract, but he and I are too opposite."

"So then what about us?" Chad asked.

"We have that little bit of common ground that we share." she explained. "We know what it's like to be placed in the shadows of someone, we're headstrong and stubborn, we stand up for what we believe in, and we have something that balances us on, you know that because of you I know to take it easy a little more and know that not everything has to be perfect or organized."

"Yeah.... And you do kinda keep me grounded and stop me from getting a big head." Chad admitted folding his arms.

"Do you see what I mean? And if that isn't evidence enough then I've got the proof to prove it." Taylor replied. "Troy and I had one kiss. And we felt nothing. It just wasn't there. No sudden rush, no magic, no imaginary fireworks..."

Chad couldn't help but chuckle. "Just like you to over analyze everything."

Taylor raised an eyebrow at him. "So you still think I'm into Troy?"

"I guess..." he paused to form the right words, "...I guess I misread the signals. And that as soon as you started saying all of those nice things about Troy I was put in second place next to him. That suddenly I wasn't good enough anymore. I thought I was done feeling like that and suddenly it just decided to come back and bite me in the butt."

"Yeah, you really should not have fallen on that before." Taylor giggled.

"Hey you were the one who threw me off." Chad replied.

"Oh yeah, it's my fault you can't walk in a straight line." she teased.

"I resent that." Chad said, turning around and almost tripping again.

Taylor covered her mouth and tried not to laugh.

Chad looked back at her and held up a finger. "I tripped on my shoelace." he lied.

"Of course you did." she played along as she followed him. "What are you doing?"

"Clocking out." he answered taking his employee id out.

"What about that dish you were so angry at?"

"Jason can take care of it when he comes in tomorrow. Not my problem."

"So I take it you're going to be out caddying tomorrow."

"Actually I have a day off tomorrow."

"Well isn't that a coincidence. I happen to have tomorrow off as well."

Chad smiled and turned to her. "Do you now? Well maybe we can do something then."

"Yeah. I'd really like that." Taylor smiled back at him.

"So, do you want me to see if my dad can give you a ride home?" he asked.

"I can't. I have to finalize the activities for tomorrow and give Mr. Fulton something to work with." Taylor shook her head.

"So you won't mind if I called you around breakfast tomorrow then." Chad assumed.

Taylor smiled again. "Not in the least."

"Cool." Chad replied with another smile. "Night Tay."

Then he pulled her in for a kiss, which she was more than happy to return. This was definitely what felt right. This is where they both belonged. And if it wasn't the kiss that proved it, then surely the smiles on their faces did. And now it made sense why people hated Mondays so much - it was either too boring or had too much drama.

* * *

That turned out a little longer than I thought it would. I had a few different ideas on how the scene with Taylor and Troy would go. But even though I used the idea in there that I did, I really am not a fan of that pairing. In case it's difficult to tell from my what, ten other stories or oneshots, I'm way more into the Chad and Taylor pairing. Now almost everything mentioned in this chapter, like the plans for family golf day and the fact that it is family golf day, and the jobs of Troy, Chad, and Taylor, is all from my All Access HSM , next up will be Tuesday and you'll see what Chad and Taylor do on their day off. As usual, hope you all like it.


	2. Tuesday

Wow I'm happy to have gotten some nice reviews from the first chapter. Thank you everyone. ^^ Sorry I had to disappoint all T&T lovers out there but I gotta stick with the C&T. Anyway I'd like to apologize for the long wait here. I've been more occupied with another one of my stories and I've honestly haven't been in much of a writing mood at some point for any stories. That itself is a long story and I don't think anyone would wanna hear it, although I'd say actually working is a part of it. Anyway, I will cut my yakking now and we'll see what happens on Chad and Taylor's day off. **NOTE**: This chapter is **rated T**just to be on the safe side. Sorry, just thought that little note was important to know, that's why I bolded part of it. XD  
Disclaimer: I own nothing legally.

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Chad woke up early the next morning, which was quite odd for him when he didn't have school, mainly because he wasn't a morning person. But as far as Chad saw it, he had a reason to wake up early and be up and running. Not like he had mentioned it to his parents yet, though. He didn't think it'd make much of a difference. They'd be at work all day so he'd be with Taylor all day. At least, that's what he was hoping for. They both had the day off so why not take all day and spend time with each other when they couldn't do that at Lava Springs except for eating? It made no sense to Chad. He needed floor time with his girl. Looking over at his alarm clock, he saw that it read 8:01 a.m. He smiled at this, sure of himself that Taylor had been up long before him. Now she was a morning person. No one else except for teachers could be so lively and perky in the morning. Chad didn't hesitate for another minute. He picked up his cell phone and scrolled down the list until he reached the T's, where aside from one of his cousins, the only two names he had in that list was Troy and Taylor. Highlighting Taylor's name, he pressed the ok button and highlighted her cell phone number as opposed to her home phone number. He pushed the Send button and placed the portable phone to his ear. Chad could hear the faint ringing and counted each one, knowing after four rings it would go straight to voicemail. He counted each ring to himself and tapped one of his fingers against his knee for emphasis each time he heard the ring tone.

One ring - nothing. Alright, no big deal. Plenty of people couldn't get to their phone on the first ring. Two rings - still nothing. Nothing to panic about, she could be in the little girls' room or finishing breakfast. Three rings - nada. It wasn't like Taylor to wait this long to pick up her phone. If she couldn't reach it by the second ring she surely would have picked up by now. Chad was beginning to get concerned by this. He did tell Taylor he'd be calling in the morning right? That's what he thought. He did wake up earlier than usual just to talk to her. Was she avoiding him? Did Chad really do something to make her angry at him? Why was it taking so long for her to answer?

"Hello?"

"Answer the dang phone already!" Chad exclaimed, feeling so stressed out that after the fourth ring he'd have to leave a message. He thought he was going completely crazy. Poor boy was too clueless to realize that while all of the thoughts and questions were roaming through his mind that exactly on the fourth ring Taylor had picked up the phone. Now the girl was confused at Chad's reaction and what kind of greeting he was giving her today.

"Um...I just did." she replied as politely as she could. "Sorry it took so long. I was finishing up in the shower."

Chad's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. He could hear the sound effects of what must be his stupidity ringing in his head right now. A car skidding across the road upon realization that Taylor had indeed answered the phone, and then the sound of the car crashing as his jaw dropped. He really knew how to greet a woman early in the morning didn't he? Chad had to recover...and fast!

"I...uh..." he stammered. Not exactly the best excuse or comeback he could come up with. So Chad did the only other thing he could think of doing. He pulled his phone away from his ear and shut it as fast as he could. He could feel the heat rushing to his cheeks and the redness in them actually appearing against his dark skin. That was so humiliating. Did she hate his guts yet?

On the dead line end, Taylor sighed heavily and hung up her phone. She took a moment to close her bedroom door and get a better grip of the towel covering her body. Holding it with one hand, she opened her phone with her other hand and dialed Chad's number, having memorized it by heart. She tapped one of her fingers against the cell phone waiting for him to answer. Chad must have been hesitant to answer, because after the second ring what sounded like a stuttering "hello" came through the line. She sighed once again and just took the opportunity to say what was on her mind.

"If you didn't want to talk then you didn't have to call me."

Well there was no getting out of that now, that was for sure. Chad rubbed the back of his head, still sitting on his bed. "No...it's not that." he shook his head. "I mean...it's not like you not to pick up after the second ring."

"I already told you, I was coming out of the shower." Taylor replied. "I couldn't exactly here my phone ring through a closed door and any running water."

"I didn't know that when I called you either." Chad said.

Taylor nodded. "Understood. But that doesn't mean you have to go ballistic when I don't pink up right away. You don't need to know what I'm doing every five minutes."

"I'm sorry." Chad apologized. "Man this is not how I wanted the call to go at all. I was expecting simple talking, some flirting, some planning..."

"No surprise to any of those. You are known for your flirting." Taylor noted.

Chad quirked an eyebrow out of curiosity. "Am I now?"

"I have seen you flirt with other girls, Chad. I'd say what they're most interested with you is..." she started.

"My hair?" Chad answered right away.

Taylor giggled. "Aside from that. I'd have to say your bright brown eyes."

And there was the flirting Chad was hoping for. "Really?" he replied with a smile, leaning up against the pillows on his bed. "Bright brown eyes, huh?"

"I'm president of the Chemistry Club. All science requires observing. I'm an observer, Chad. I see things." Taylor replied simply, though if she were talking to him face to face right now then surely her smile would have been seductive.

"I'd like to be your observer." he replied quite flirtatiously.

"Well, my parents should be leaving for work any minute. Think you can drop by in about an hour?" she suggested.

"I'll do more than just drop by. We can grab lunch, my treat." Chad offered.

"Maybe catch a movie?" Taylor added.

"And not watch the movie?" Chad finished.

They were both smiling. While the two seemed so opposite at first glance the truth was that Chad and Taylor were more alike than anyone even knew. And surely working yesterday must have proven it. It was just the right balance for them: opposite enough for people not to believe it and to have a range of subjects to talk about, yet enough similarities to nearly balance it out. Chad called it luck and Taylor called it the perfect equation. And as if all that wasn't enough, now they were even beginning to think alike, too. It was very much enjoyable to them. Now there was a silence and it seemed as though the both of them were playing the day over in their heads, knowing exactly what would happen and what they would do. Only a few breaths or content sighs could be heard over the phone lines. Evidently, Chad was the first to break the silence.

"So..your house in an hour?"

"Yeah." Taylor nodded with a smile. "See you then."

Chad smiled and slowly reached for the End button on his phone. "See ya Tay." he said before slowly hanging up the phone. He put it down and cheered to himself. That turned out better than he thought. He was going to be hanging out with his girlfriend today. Lunch, a movie, kissing, talking...that was his kind of day off. Wait a minute...his day off! Chad had an hour to get to Taylor's house. He had to eat breakfast, get dressed, grab money, and make himself wasn't going to waste another minute. He made a mad dash downstairs to the kitchen. Mr. Danforth saw his son running around the room practically in circles and tried to keep up with the teen.

"Whoa, slow down son. What's the rush?" he asked.

"I gotta eat breakfast and get dressed. I have a date today." Chad replied still running around.

Mr. Danforth sighed and grabbed Chad by the shirt collar to stop him from running around. "If you run like that now you won't have enough energy to go anywhere." He let Chad go and then continued. "I have to get to work. There's toast and pop-tarts in the cabinet. Let us know if you'll be home for dinner."

"Alright Dad." Chad nodded.

Mr. Danforth pat his son on the back and headed for the door. "See you tonight Chad."

"Later Dad." Chad replied as he went over to the cabinet and started digging for breakfast.

"Oh, and son?" he added. He waited until Chad turned over to him. "Make sure you shower before you go anywhere."

Well that was...a bit insulting. "I'll remember that." Chad replied as his father left. Chad then raised an eyebrow out of confusion and wondered if he smelled that bad. Deciding not to take any chances, he shook his head and decided to take a shower as soon as he was done with breakfast.

In the meantime, Taylor had much more preparing to do before seeing anyone. In a girls' case, it wasn't always just go from one step to another and then be done and ready to go anywhere. Forget just eating breakfast, possibly showering, and looking decent. The shower may be finished but there was much more to do. She'd have to figure out exactly what to wear and how to do her hair. She'd have to make sure to eat a little breakfast herself, and, because they'd be at her house, Taylor would have to make sure everything looked in perfect condition. With only an hour to Chad's arrival, Taylor had no time to lose. Replacing her towel with a bathrobe she went downstairs to have a quick breakfast. Consuming a bowl of cereal took only fifteen minutes, but that still left cleaning and changing. The time check was almost twenty after eight, so Taylor spent a good half hour cleaning the living room and kitchen. Her parents were out the door even before she started eating breakfast, so Taylor knew that meant she'd have to pay attention to any phone calls during the day; they could call her at any given time and say they'd be working late or when they'd be coming home. Realizing the time, Taylor headed up to her room. She looked through her closet to pick out just the right outfit. Something not too casual but not too dressy. Unfortunately there wasn't enough time to pick out an outfit. Only minutes later did she hear a knock on the door. It had to have been Chad. Hopefully he could hear her from upstairs.

"Come in!"

Taylor could hear the sound of the door opening followed by Chad's voice. "Hey Tay. Sorry I'm early."

Wow, Chad early? If only it were any other day.... "I'm just finishing getting ready. You can make yourself comfortable." she replied.

Chad nodded and put his hands in his pockets. They were of a khaki shade and held up by a belt and his shirt was a sky blue color. Chad's hair was how it usually looked, not tied back or anything. He had tried to look his best, anyway, and he was sure it was good enough for the day. He took a minute to look over the living room. everything looked in such perfect condition. He'd hate to mess everything up. Instead of sitting on the couch, Chad walked around and took in his surroundings. The room was so spacious and clean, not to mention how expensive some of the furniture looked. He was so taken back by everything that he didn't hear footsteps. Then again, Chad could be one to get distracted easily.

"Chad."

He spun around hearing his name. His eyes ended up falling on Taylor, who had gone from her usual classy look to more of a casual dressy look. Her yellow scarf was much longer than the scarfs she normally wore. The processional use of a sweater vest was changed to a simple yellow and white shirt. A long flowing yellow shirt matched the exact shade of her shirt and her usual flats were replaced with low heels. Chad couldn't even take his eyes off of her. there goes his distraction thing again.

"Chad." she repeated.

He shook his head trying to snap out of it and return to reality. "S-sorry." he almost stammered. "I just...I mean...."

"I could go change." Taylor offered.

"No, no. It's not that at all." he shook his head quickly. "You look great. Perfect. Really." And now he was blabbing too. Poor Chad, so caught off guard. And evidently, he wasn't the only one completely caught off guard either.

"Um...thank you. You, you look pretty great too."

"I always do." Chad chuckled.

Taylor rolled her eyes and playfully shoved him. "You have such a big head."

"All the more room to keep you in there with." Chad teased wrapping his arms around her.

"I bet you say that to all the girls." she giggled.

"Not all of them. Just my girl." Chad replied with a smile.

"Just for me? I feel so honored." she feigned excitement.

Chad chuckled. "You should be. That's the kinda guy I am." he said pecking her on the lips.

"Such a big sweet head." Taylor replied sarcastically with a smile.

"Yeah but you love it." he pecked her again, then gave her another kiss.

Taylor giggled once more. "Alright hot lips, we're not going to stand here like this all day."

"We can't? Why not?" Chad pouted.

"Because it's early and we made plans." she replied. "So what should we do first? The movies? A trip to the park? Go for a drive?"

"I was thinking we could just spend the morning here watching a movie. Without watching the movie." Chad said slyly.

"Chad, no. We're not overdoing anything today. You know my limits." Taylor told him.

"Ok, totally understandable." Chad gave in. "One kiss per day."

"Whoa whoa whoa..." she cut him off, "I never said I had _that_ many limits."

Chad couldn't help but laugh. "Alright. We'll just have to test those limits during the movie then."

"Fine. You pay for the movie and I'll pay for lunch. We can go somewhere after the movie." she compromised.

"Deal." Chad agreed. He took her hand and then paused for a minute. "I hope you're ok with walking or taking the bus because I still don't have enough cash to get my own car."

-CT-CT-CT-CT-CT-

As soon as the movie was over, the couple made their way to a nearby restaurant for lunch. While it was nothing more than a fast food restaurant, it'd have to do for today. Their mid-morning snack during the movie didn't exactly consist of nachos or popcorn. Additionally, the fast food place was fairly close to the theater and therefore was much easier to get to as opposed to one of the diners which were at least three miles down the road. As far as the movie itself was considered, both seemed to be having a good time. Taylor was laughing and Chad had a big goofy smile on his face. The pair walked down the road, their hands locked, as they reminisced about the movie.

"That was one of the worst movies I've ever seen." Taylor laughed.

"You kidding? It was pure comic genius." Chad replied.

"Oh so you were actually paying attention to it?" she asked sarcastically.

"But of course." Chad said smoothly.

"Funny, I would have thought you'd be staring at something else most of the time. Or someone." she teased.

chad chuckled. "Ok fine, you caught me. I did spent at least half of the movie watching a certain girl. Who didn't even seem like the kind who would make out during a movie, I might add."

Taylor could already feel the heat rush to her cheeks. If anyone even found out, whether it be her friends or her parents...boy would that be embarrassing. "I have no further comments at this time." she said quickly, deciding to try and drop the topic.

Chad couldn't help but really laugh at that. "Try and deny it all you want Ms. McKessie, but that's gonna haunt you for the rest of your life."

"I told you I had limits." she said defensively. She then rubbed the back of her head lightly and pursed her lips. "Making out just doesn't happen to go past those limits."

"And taking off say your shirt wouldn't go over those limits either?" he joked.

"Yes they would. "Taylor nodded as a matter of factly.

"Oh..." Chad said slowly, feeling somewhat embarassed by that. Now how was he going to turn that around and make it sound even mildly funny? "I think my foot's gonna leave a bad taste in my mouth after that one..."

Taylor giggled faintly and shook her head. "Two more strikes and Il'l have to send you home for inappropriate behavior. "she teased. "Although, after all of those suggestions you made at my house about what we could spend most of the day doing I should call that your first strike."

"Or it could be a really stern warning followed by the strike I just got?" Chad asked hopefully.

"I'll think about it." she offered. "Let's worry about getting lunch first."

It wasn't too long after that, that they made their way into the restaurant. They paid for their lunch and sat down at a table. It was fairly quiet for the first few minutes that they ate, aside from numerous voices from other customers in the background of course. Chad just dug into his food right away but was aware that he was being...oh, what was the right word? Gross? Impolite? Unattractive? Any of the above? Whichever it must have been, he was sure he was scaring Taylor away. In mid-bite of his cheeseburger, Chad slowly lifted his head and looked at Taylor. she was so much more sophisticated than him, even if she was starving. She held her fork so carefully as she ate her salad and didn't eat another bite before finishing what was in her mouth. Just so diligent and polite and probably a bunch of other words he couldn't even think of to describe her. And then, feeling a set of eyes on her, Taylor picked her head up away from her food and looked at Chad.

"Something the matter?"

"Oh..." Chad stammered. Now he couldn't find the right words to speak with. And things had been going so well, too. "It's just...uh see the thing is...what I mean to say is..."

And even with all of his stammering Taylor couldn't help but giggle. Chad was just so cute when he acted clueless. As for looking hot...well that wouldn't be too hard for him to pull off. Just wait until he pulled his shirt off for a two on two game with his friends and almost any girl would be fanning themselves in his presence in no time. Not like Taylor would ever admit that she's found herself doing that in the past, of course. But she wasn't denying his obvious good looks either. So instead of this continuous thinking to herself, Taylor decided it was time to just open her mouth and reply to his useless stammering before he ran out of the place turning tomato red.

"It's fine. I get it, you were hungry."

"And inevitably turning into a pig." he said mostly to himself.

Taylor merely shook her head. "Trust me, I've seen way bigger pigs than yourself. But if you're going to scarf down food like that, may I suggest having an eating contest with your friends?"

"I actually did that once. We all entered a pie eating contest at the county fair." Chad replied.

She quirked an eyebrow and leaned back in her seat, folding her arms. Apparently her curiosity was peaked. "Dare I ask the results?"

"Needless to say we all ended up losing to a really big ten-year-old wearing his own superhero costume." Chad admitted.

Taylor covered her mouth in order to prevent her fit of laughter from escaping so easily.

"Yeah, go ahead and laugh it up." Chad said sheepishly.

Taylor waited until she was sure she would at least barely laugh before taking her hand away from her mouth and speaking again. "I'm sorry. That must have been so hard."

"Well there was a bright side," Chad chuckled, "at least I wasn't the one with my entire face covered in weird cherry juice."

"What?" Taylor laughed.

Not even Chad could hold himself back from laughter. "Jason had practically dug his face into the pie he was eating. It was cherry flavored and his entire face was so red you couldn't tell his face from his hair cause that was the day he ended up accidentally using his mom's weird coloring shampoo which changed his hair to red."

"And yourself?" she dared to inquire just thinking about what the pie would have done to his hair.

"The worst was scarping blueberry pie crumbs out of my hair and washing it in the sink with my mom for two hours." Chad replied.

"you poor thing." she teased.

"Yeah, poor me. I smelled like dirty dishes for a week." he said.

And even that didn't stop her from laughing. But Chad didn't care. No it wasn't because he was used to cracking jokes or having people laugh at him for one reason or another. Truth be told, he wanted to get her laughing. He enjoyed her laughter so much and honestly, sometimes Chad hadn't even realized Taylor had a sense of humor buried under her serious personality. It didn't matter if she was laughing at him or his childhood mishaps. What mattered is that she was clearly enjoying herself. And besides, Chad knew one of the best ways to a girl's heart was to get them laughing. That, and giving them flowers and chocolates. Mama didn't raise no fools. And as an added bonus, he was given an incredible opportunity. In the middle of Taylor's laughing, Chad snatched a fry from her tray and ate it for himself. Unfortunately for him it was a crispy fry. Not one of the soft mushy fries, but a crunchy crispy one. That perked Taylor's attention.

"Chad!" she gasped.

-CT-CT-CT-CT-CT-

Nearly an hour later, even though it was still early in the day, the pair arrived back at Taylor's house. There were so many other things they could have thought of to do outside but had decided to go back to Taylor's and just relax for a while. Just some usual boyfriend-girlfriend stuff, nothing out of the ordinary.

"so what time is our fun over?" Chad joked.

"You mean what time to my parents get home from their usual long days at work?" Taylor rephrased him. "Knowing them, not until at least seven. And five on Friday's."

"The whole place to ourselves..." he mused.

"Don't get any ideas, Chad." she shook her head. "I know what you're thinking right now and we're not doing anything. We're just going to relax on the couch, talk, maybe watch some TV..."

"So no kissing?" he teased.

"When did I say that?" she gasped, which caused Chad to once again start laughing. Both had done so much of that today, it shouldn't have even come as a surprise that one of them said something humorous. And while Taylor did enjoy a good laugh, especially from Chad who knew all too well how to put a smile on her face, she really didn't like it when he put words in her mouth. After all, Chad had much more relationship experience than she did and she was merely pointing that out and saying that there were some things she wasn't ready for. Who was she kidding? She couldn't even watch anything relating to it on television even if it were for a science project. as much as she hated to say it, Taylor always figured it took her to a new level of pathetic. But that was just her. It was one of those things that made her debate being a good or bad match for Chad. Yes it was one of the things that made them total opposites, however that meant that on relationship statuses sometimes it could be easier than either realized to be on different levels. And once again she had gone into such a deep thought that Chad's repeating voice of a total of three times had to snap her out of it. Slightly ironic, actually. Taylor wasn't the type of person to daydream or daze off easily.

"Taylor. You're always implying it." Chad said for, as was mentioned, the third time.

"No I'm not. But I know you're used to going farther than that." she replied.

"You don't know that." Chad shook his head.

"And why shouldn't I?" she questioned folding her arms. "Chad, you've gone out with at least ten different girls since freshman year. Why should I believe that you haven't gotten past second base?"

"Gee, I don't know." he put his finger to his chin as though he were playing dumb. "Maybe the best way to do that would actually be listening to me."

Taylor shook her head, somehow finding herself feeling insulted by his remark. "You did not just use a tone like that with me."

Chad shook his head, looking just as insulted as she did. "you're sounding like my mother!"

"I don't need to stand here and listen to you say such rude comments." Taylor retorted.

"Alright I'll just go home and yell at my pillow because it didn't feel as soft as it did every other night!" Chad argued half sarcastically.

"you can go yell at whatever the hell you want because quite frankly, I just don't care!" she raised her voice.

"Well if you don't care then I could give just as much crap as you!" Chad retorted.

Taylor shook her head. Naturally when they bickered she couldn't even remember what she saw in him. "You...you get out of my house!" she demanded, needing a moment to gather herself.

"I'll get out of your house when I'm good and ready!" Chad insisted. He stood firm right where he was, his arms folded. There was about a second of silence. He looked at the watch on his wrist and at least three more ticks were heard, most likely insinuating that three more seconds had gone by. By the fifth tick, he put his arm down by his side and glared at Taylor. "_Now_ I'm good and ready!"

"Then leave. No one's stopping you." Taylor informed him angrily.

"With pleasure!" Chad fought. He didn't even wait five more seconds. He just turned around and stormed out of her house, slamming the door behind him. But as angry as Chad was, he didn't go anywhere right away. He just stood outside her door with his arms folded. Part of him couldn't help but feel completely stupid for the way he had just acted. He got completely furious at his girlfriend just because he was teasing and she made a few assumptions. Wow...that was even stupider than he realized. Sure they fought a lot; it was what they did. An on again-off again relationship was no surprise for Chad and Taylor. But that didn't mean the time they weren't together, they stopped caring about each other. More than they'd like to admit, they cared deeply about each other and obviously meant a lot to one another. And because of the pride and stubbornness they were just so quick to fight and throw each other out a window if they so desired. Chad knew that Taylor got tired of it and yet loved it at the same time. There was just some excitement to it and made their relationship all the more stronger once they got back together. And even after they fought, whether it was Chad's fault or not he would find a way to make it up to her and only prove how much she did mean to him. But enough was enough. It was time to take a different approach. It was time and make things different. It was time to go where no man - at least that Chad could think of - had gone before. But naturally, he wouldn't have any time to announce his plan to anyone. He could see a car ready to pull into Taylor's driveway. His first instinct was that it was one of her parents. So before Chad could do anything else, he made a run for it down the street and attempted to make it look like he was going for an afternoon jog as the middle-aged man parked the car in Taylor's driveway and watched Chad leave.

Taylor was fortunate enough to have made it up to her bedroom and close the door behind her. She removed her scarf and tossed it to the side. How could she have been so stupid? To actually think there was something between her and Chad? Now in retrospect, the thought did run through her head every time they had a fight and 'broke up' but she couldn't know in advanced that they would get back together or not. And this time, Taylor really didn't know. She was beginning to question why she even put up with Chad. He was just so...well, Chad. While very attractive, athletic, and whatnot he was still self-absorbed, stubborn, and thought his jokes were always funny. He never took anything seriously. how could she even be with someone who didn't seem like they knew the meaning of the word? Surely Chad was the last possible thing from serious. So if he wasn't a serious person then he couldn't be serious about their relationship. She might as well be done with him. Key words: might as well. More importantly, _the_ key word: _might_. And annoyed as he made her sometimes, Taylor couldn't see herself with another guy. She honestly didn't think she could look Chad in the eyes and say with a straight face that it was over for good. Who was she kidding? She wouldn't even be able to say it's over with a straight face. And while Chad was Taylor's first boyfriend - heck, even her first crush - she was smart enough to know that in any healthy relationship there had to be three main components: trust, honesty, and compromise. Chad and Taylor were honest with each other, though at times more honest than they'd both like to be towards one another ,and they trusted each other. But one thing they had yet to master was compromise. When they first started dating, Taylor didn't want to attend Chad's basketball games because she just wasn't into sports. Chad wouldn't want to see Taylor wipe away the competition at her Scholastic Decathlon competitions because he was sure it was nothing more than boring. They couldn't sit through each others' preferred movie genre so they always had to go with horror when they went to the movies; Chad adored action movies, especially ones that were just like the comic books he used to read, while Taylor was more of a documentary person or even an occasional chick flick, though she hated to admit it. Forget seeing Chad's movie one week and then Taylor's the next week, they both had to sit through a horror movie and, in different cases, one of them would always be freaked out. To make a point, since their last so-called breakup Chad and Taylor have been a couple for a good three months - a personal record for them. Taylor had grown quite accustomed to her and Chad's relationship. And as much as at times she'd love to dump his butt and really show him up, Taylor just couldn't find it in her heart to. So if their relationship was going to get any better, then Taylor was going to have to do something she never wanted to do. Well...that's being over-dramatic. But she was going to have to do something that she really hoped it wouldn't come to.

"Hey there sweetie."

Taylor picked her head up to see her father in the doorway. She quirked an eyebrow. "Dad what are you doing home so early? It's not even two yet."

Mr. McKessie chuckled. "The office was closed early today for a long weekend."

"But it's Tuesday." Taylor stated.

"Like I said, a long weekend." Mr. McKessie repeated. "They'll open up again on Friday."

"Of course." Taylor couldn't help but mutter to herself as she rolled her eyes.

"so how was your day off from work?" he asked.

Now was Taylor really going to be the one to tell her father, her father the one who had told her she wasn't allowed to date until she was thirty, that she had sort of kind of been on a date with a boy earlier...that didn't end on a light note. Telling him she was with a boy would be bad enough. So she settled with, "It was alright, I suppose."

"Excellent." Mr. McKessie nodded. "I'm just going to catch up on the work I was doing today so knock on my office door if you need me."

Well, here goes nothing. "Actually father, there's something I want to discuss with you."

"Of course, of course." he nodded as he stepped into her room and sat on the edge of her bed. "Feel free to tell me anything. I'm all ears."

"Alright." Taylor took a deep breath and nodded, trying to assure herself that she knew what she was doing and that it had to be done. "Well as you know, I will be entering my senior year of high school this fall. And after doing so it's only a matter of time before I move out of the house and travel to college. And especially if it's out of state or more than an hour away you and Mom are aware that I'll be living on campus. Therefore neither of you will be there to monitor my actions nor be able to tell me constantly what is right and what is wrong or what I should do in any given situation. I'll be living my own life for the first time, as in learning how to survive on my own without you or Mom's guidance. Therefore I believe that before I even start college, and perhaps even my final year of high school, there are a few things I would like to talk about. And I want to get the talk that's first on my list out of the way."

Mr. McKessie chuckled. He knew how his daughter was better than anyone so of course he knew she'd want this to be as mature as possible, even debatable in some cases. "Alright. Now what does my baby girl want to talk about?"

Here goes nothing. "The talk." she said simply.

"Which talk are we talking?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Dad...I'm talking about _the_ talk." she replied cautiously.

Now imagine any parents' reaction to such a statement. If you've never dealt with it for yourself or even saw it on television, then let Mr. McKessie's reaction be your first idea of how any parent would react. A bit stereotypical, perhaps, but humorous nonetheless. His eyes widened in complete shock and surprise. His mouth nearly looked like it was going to drop open down to the floor. While his hands had rested on his knees, they tensed and his grip tightened on his good work pants. He wasn't even blinking; just staring at his daughter. His jacket, the one that matched a suit, while still buttoned up, slipped down one of his shoulders onto his arm and probably would have fallen off completely if it weren't buttoned up. his tie found a way to untie itself and rested around his neck around in a circle before one side put too much weight on that side and slipped right down to the ground. Even his neatly combed black hair stood up from out of nowhere and resembled a Mohawk instead of a cut and cleaned style. So obviously, that was not the response Mr. McKessie was hoping to get when Taylor told him she wanted to talk. Or have a mature discussion. Or a spirited debate. He just stared right at her and Taylor tilted her head. She knew something was up. And her father couldn't take much more of this. No, he wasn't going to start yelling about her thinking about boys. Nor was he going to question her if she had been seeing a boy and demand to meet him so he could scare him off. Instead he did the only thing that he was sane enough to think of. He pulled out his cell phone and pushed one button, most likely a speed dial button. Because there was only one other person he knew that could handle this.

"Honey...your daughter wants to talk to you."

* * *

Again, I'd like to apologize for the wait on this chapter. I started this weeks ago but I just couldn't get back into it right away and continue. There were a few different way, as usual, that it could have gone in. Hopefully this chapter and its ending was decent enough, but before you jump to conclusions about your favorite couple (if your favorite's Chad and Taylor anyway), remember that this chapter was only Tuesday and the story will go up until Sunday, so there's five chapters to go. But as well as this story, I would also like to fininsh my Deleted HSM scenes as soon as I can so i can move on with my longer stories. I would also like to type and add the last two chapters of my Future of HSM oneshots. However, as much as I'd love to have all of them done and satisfy everyone within the week at most, I can't guarantee anything. And next week, the week after the 4th of July, I do have work four days a week so heads up now that it will be difficult to update. But while I'm off this week I would like to try and get up as many chapters for as many stories as I can...and actually bring myself to do it because I'm typing on a new computer and new keyboard and boy do i love this new keyboard. lol Ok, that's enough yakking. You wanna get lost and read your other stories don't you? Ok, carry on. Happy afternoon everyone. Or morning. Or evening. Whatever time it is when you're done reading. XD


	3. Wednesday

Once again I would like to say thank you for the reviews the previous chapter received. As it is Satuday I'm stuck with work tomorrow so that means a day of no updates. Possibly if I can, get started on a chapter for this or another story, but otherwise nothing. So here we have the next chapter. It's Wednesday and according to my All Access book that makes it the Ballroom Dancing Showcase. As it was in the first chapter, this one will be revolving around the daily activity but everything that is done is pretty much made up. XD But then again we don't know what really happens during the day when everyone was working so we should have fun with it right? alright, moving on with the story then. Have fun all! Once again, this chapter is **Rated T **for implied...well, talk. Cause some of the stuff would probably make you think of a T rating. So yeah, Rated T for safety.  
Disclaimer: Nothing is owned by me.

* * *

"And one two three, one two three.... Excellent." Taylor said as she circled the ballroom at Lava Springs, watching all of the club members dance in their pairs. Today was the Ballroom Dancing Showcase event and everyone was preparing for the evening where they'd compete with each other and see who learned the most from the class Taylor was lecturing. They had already learned the typical slow dance and now they were going over the waltz, one of Taylor's personal favorite dances. It had such a history behind it and was such a romantic and graceful dance. And for the couple that would win the competition would not only get a completely free dinner but also an all-access pass to the pool the next day with up to fifty guests they could invite of their own choosing. And as far as the class was going to prepare them for the event itself, everyone seemed to be learning quite quickly. Even if they all came from a rich background and would dance the waltz and everything else they were currently being taught, surely enough they wouldn't do the dances every day and merely save them for special occasions or events. Either way, Taylor was purely impressed.

Looking over towards the doorway Taylor could see Mr. Fulton. He coughed slightly to get her attention and signaled for her to come over. Taylor nodded in response, showing him that she had been paying attention, and turned back to the members. "Alright everyone let's take a little snack break." she announced. "Be back in a half hour and we'll spice things up a little with the tango."

The music died down and the members broke away from each other and headed out of the ballroom or off to lean against the walls and just relax. Taylor made her way over to Mr. Fulton with her clipboard at hand.

"Ah, Ms. McKessie. The class is going well, I hope." he said.

"Yes, sir. Everyone will be ready for the showcase tonight. They're going to give Lava Springs a show to remember."

"Excellent, very good to know." Mr. Fulton nodded with approval. He pulled out a CD from the pocket in his jacket and handed it to Taylor. "Here is that new tango CD you requested. We needed a new one anyway. The old one can be used as a back-up. Now what else do we need to take care of today?"

Taylor grinned. She had mentioned that morning that they might need a new CD. She even put it on her clipboard with a question mark. And when Mr. Fulton came with her to listen to the old CD, he agreed that something had to be done. One down, two to go. Taylor looked at her clipboard and read off the two remaining chores to tackle. "We have to check the sound system to make sure it's in perfect condition for tonight. There have been a few points where it sounded like it was full of static and I'm not sure if it was the system or the song on the CD. And I'm wondering if we should wax the floors before the showcase tonight. Would that be a good idea?"

"Il'l get someone to check the sound system when your class is over. I'll send someone to double check it an hour before the showcase as well." Mr. Fulton replied. "And as far as waxing the floors go, I think not. The floors will be much roo slippery and the showcase will be a disaster with everyone sliding across the floor or falling onto it. We'll wax it another day."

"Of course." Taylor nodded. Taking a pen that was safely tucked behind her ear, she used it and crossed out 'Ask Mr. Fulton about waxed ballroom floor - good idea or not?' and then placed a check mark next to 'check sound system'.

Mr. Fulton watched as Taylor put the marks on her list. "Very good. I see I chose wisely in appointing you as head of the events. Keep up the good work Ms. McKessie."

Taylor smiled. "Thank you very much sir. I promise I won't let you down."

"don't disappoint." he replied, shaking his finger for emphasis. "Now there's just one final matter to take care of. Be sure to let the cleaning committee know not to clean up as soon as the event's concluded. The guests may be leaving after that, but that won't mean the night will be over."

Taylor scribbled the note quickly onto her sheet. "Will, do sir."

"Very good. Carry on." Mr. Fulton finished before walking out the door.

Taylor looked down at her watch to check the time. That didn't take long at all; there were at least twenty minutes left before the break would be over. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to get a little food herself. But before she could go out anywhere Gabriella walked into the ballroom with a big smile on her face.

"My ten minute afternoon break officially starts now." she told Taylor.

"Let's talk in the hallway," Taylor suggested, "you're soaking wet and we can't have anyone slipping on the floor."

"Of course not." Gabriella replied as the two of them left the ballroom. "And how is the little dancing rehearsal going?"

"The better question is, why are you so wet? Has the position of lifeguard been kicked up a notch?" Taylor asked.

Gabriella giggled. "A little kid accidentally lost their lollipop in the water. I dove down to get it back to them. Which kind of made them a little more upset."

Taylor smiled and shook her head. "I can see why."

"So how's it going with you? Did you have a good day off yesterday? you totally missed Zeke learning how to make the perfect eclair." Gabriella said.

Taylor bit her tongue. If she could trust anyone it was Gabriella. "Actually I was kind of with Chad."

Gabriella smiled. "you two are really hitting it off. So when do you get passed the old married couple stage and onto the honeymoon stage?"

"Gabriella, arguing is what Chad and I do. There's no way we could be all over each other like you and Troy are." Taylor replied.

She felt her face turn bright red. "Troy and I only recently had our first kiss. We haven't made it to second base yet."

"Well everyone knows how far Chad's gone with other girls. I kept emphasizing my limits to him yesterday and he keeps teasing me about it." Taylor explained.

"so what did you do?" Gabriella inquired, raising an eyebrow.

Taylor hesitated for a minute, trying to figure out how to word exactly what she wanted to say. "We hung out together until about one or two yesterday. And my father came home from work early. And I wanted to have the talk with him but he chickened out and called my mother so as soon as she got home we had a very long conversation."

Gabriella blinked in surprise. She never would have expected Taylor to even think about something like that. It was completely...well, not like her. So she and Chad were different, big deal. He's had numerous girlfriends before and he happened to be Taylor's first boyfriend. Gabriella knew that, and sometimes it even seemed obvious that kids at school it sounded so shocking to Gabriella. would Taylor really give up what she thought she was giving up just for one guy? Well...that was Gabriella's first assumption from Taylor's statement, anyway. For all she knew, Taylor could have just wanted to get the talk out of the way or maybe know about it now so she could be prepared in advanced. She was the kind of person who liked to be well prepared, after all. So instead of questioning Taylor about every detail and why the sudden interest, Gabriella decided to go with a basic question.

"Was it embarrassing or awkward?"

"Yes. Unquestionably." Taylor nodded right away.

"So did you and Chad do...anything?" Gabriella wondered, hoping not to hit a sore or sensitive spot.

"We went to a movie and grabbed some lunch." Taylor said.

"And that's it?" Gabriella inquired.

"Pretty much." she nodded, deciding to leave out the part about them arguing. "What did you think happened?"

"Nothing. I was just wondering." Gabriella replied a little too quickly.

Taylor's eyes widened and her jaw dropped. "You think Chad and I...?"

"No, of course not." she replied. "But it could be possible."

"There's a difference between possible and plausible. And right now the idea of Chad and I doing anything of the sort or anything at all for that matter...I'm not sure which it is." Taylor admitted. "But you won't tell anyone, right? I don't want a rumor to start or anything getting the wrong idea or people calling me a sl-"

Gabriella cut her off. "Don't worry. It may not be a total secret but it's safe with me." she promised. "And let's be honest. We can't avoid the talk with our parents forever. Might as well learn about it now and ahead of time."

"Right. Of course." Taylor nodded, though not sounding completely sure of herself.

"So are you sure nothing happened?" she wondered.

"I'm a little more worried about the long term than the short term right now. And the talk was more about the short run." Taylor answered.

"And you haven't talked about doing it with Chad at all? Like when or if it might happen?" she continued.

"Gabs...can we please not say 'doing it' at work?" Taylor asked, feeling more than a bit uncomfortable.

"Sorry." she apologized.

Taylor shook her head. "It's fine. But I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens."

"Alright." Gabriella replied. She heard her watch beeping and looked at it. "I have to get back to my post. I can't leave the pool unattended for too long."

"Of course." Taylor nodded. "I guess I'll see you later then."

"Yeah. Bye Tay." Gabriella said before running off to get back to the pool and Taylor returned into the ballroom.

But even though they had been quiet about their conversation and it seemed as though no one had been around, little did the girls know that parts of their conversation had been overheard. It was a hallway, after all. From behind one of the plants someone was smirking. They had just been walking down minding their own business when they happened to overhear a few details of the conversation. Maybe not every little thing, or maybe some of the words might have gotten confused for being different words, but that didn't change the fact that someone was eavesdropping. They knew what the girls were talking about and they knew what the girls meant. And as far as they were considered, it wouldn't be a secret for very long. The truth had to come out, after all. And to the eavesdropper, it was something that needed to be heard.

-insert couple here-insert couple here-insert couple here-

Chad walked across the green with a gold bag in hand. While he was caddy for the day, he had a different job this time. Troy was teaching a kid's golf class and Mr. Fulton had agreed to let Chad assist Troy. Chad thought that meant he could play golf with them or something. So much for that idea. He was stuck on the other side of the green picking up the balls that the kids managed to hit - some of which had gone incredibly far - and putting them in the golf bag. That was his special caddy duty for the day. Pick up after the kids. Oh what a joy it was. Not. The only reason he wasn't stuck walking from his current position all the way back to the other side where Troy was with the kids was because they had a plethora of golf balls just waiting to be hit. And when Chad wasn't picking up the hit balls or chasing after them, he was getting hit with them. A couple had got him ni the chest, plenty had bounced off against his head and one...well, let's just say it hit him in a very sensitive spot. It had gone on like that for a good couple of hours. Luckily, as soon as the class was over Troy came across the green to find Chad on the ground. He was either hit in his sensitive spot then - or again - or he got pummeled with more golf balls than they both though.

"Having a nice nap down there dude?" Troy laughed.

"Very funny." Chad said sarcastically as he looked up at his friend.

"Hey maybe they're trying to bump you back into reality. You have been kind of off today." Troy stated. He snapped his fingers and pointed at Chad, "Something happened with you and Taylor yesterday didn't it?"

"What could've possible happened between us?" Chad asked as he sat up.

"I'm guessing either another fight or you both were very busy bees." Troy rubbed his chin.

Chad raised an eyebrow. "You said what now?"

Troy rolled his eyes. He was amazed Chad didn't catch on right away. He sat down and whispered something in Chad's ear, which made the curly haired boy's eyes nearly pop out of his face.

"Dude! You really think we did _that_?" he gasped.

Troy shrugged his shoulders. "Well you both had a day off yesterday. It's possible."

"I'm lucky if she lets me get up to second base, man." Chad replied. "The girl's really stubborn. What am I supposed to do, be like you and Gabriella who take it at the speed of a snail?"

"Well you have been known to jump into relationships." Troy said. "I wouldn't be surprised."

"We just went to lunch and saw a movie. That was it." he told him honestly. "I was home before three."

"Woah, somebody really needed a wake-up call." Troy joked.

"Troy..." Chad said harshly.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding." troy chuckled. "Look if you said nothing happened then nothing happened. i was just making a few harmless jokes."

"Yeah well if Taylor thinks I'm spreading rumors about us she'll have my head. I'd never hear the end of it." Chad said.

"Don't worry. I'm not gonna start any rumors. You know me better than that." he replied.

"Yeah, I know." Chad sighed.

"yo!"

Troy and Chad turned to see Jason running towards them. The guy seemed really anxious.

"What's up Jay?" Troy asked.

Jason stopped in front of his friends as the two of them say up. Jason leaned forward and rested his hands on his knees and took deep breaths. "Breathy first, talky second..." he said in between breaths.

Troy and Chad exchanged glances. something was not right with this guy. They often thought that about him, because Jason always seemed to take longer than everyone else to catch onto things. But this time was different. With his panting he almost sounded nervous. Or excited. Maybe it was both. But as soon as Jason stood up straight and picked his head up he looked directly at Chad.

"Why didn't you tell us man?"

"Uh...tell you what?" chad quirked an eyebrow.

"Dude!" Jason gasped. "How could you not know what went down yesterday?"

"Because I wasn't here. It was my day off." he replied.

"Exactly!" Jason exclaimed. "You were doing the deed!"

Troy chuckled. "What, him and Taylor? C'mon man, you're tripping. Chad just told me nothing happened."

"That's not what I heard." he replied. "Those two did it big time."

Chad raised his hand. "Uh hello, I'm standing right here. I can hear every word you're saying."

Jason's head shot over to Chad. "Then you can dish out the juiciness already! How was it?"

"what, my date?" Chad asked.

"No, the it! The it!" Jason replied.

"I think you're getting your people mixed up again Jay. There's no way Chad would lie about doing it to us." Troy laughed folding his arms. Then he stopped laughing and looked over at Chad. "Right man?"

"I don't know." Chad shrugged. "I mean I might brag about it or something..."

"Well someone else is doing the bragging for you." Jason told him. "I overheard three girls by the poolside talking about it. One had blond hair, one had red hair, one had skin like yours..."

"Yeah never heard of em." Chad shook his head.

"Well apparently they know you cause they know what you did yesterday." Jason said.

"I didn't do anything yesterday! Not like that!" Chad replied, exasperated.

Troy, ever the peacemaker, decided to step in. He was the captain of the basketball team and had to handle quarrels between his teammates. He hated it when they fought, and that was no different on or off the court. And whatever this was, they had to get it sorted out. Chad had told him one thing, but according to Jason three girls were hearing something totally different. Troy's only assumption would be that Chad was flirting with them and bragging about something, but even though Chad could be a player sometimes Troy knew he'd never flirt or do things with another girl when he was already dating someone. This had to get settled, now. And Troy knew just how to do it.

"Ok let's take a minute to think here. I heard Chad's side of the story. He said something about lunch and a movie."

"Still standing right here," chad informed him.

Still, Troy continued. "But the only way we'll know for sure is if we get Taylor's side of the story. If she tells us something different then we know someone's lying and something definitely went down."

Chad's eyes widened. "Oh corn butter!" he exclaimed. "I gotta go find Taylor!" Dropping the golf bag, he made a mad dash off of the golf course and ran back to the country club as fast as he could. Jason was trying to tell Chad that he and Taylor were doing it, but both Chad and Taylor knew they had done nothing. Well, except argue. But not it. And Chad knew as well as anyone else that if Taylor found out about this, she'd put the blame right on him and he'd be not only a dead man but a dead dumped man. And Chad knew for a fact that Taylor wouldn't spread lies like that...at least, he hoped she wouldn't. But there was only one way to find out. While he ran off, Jason turned to Troy with a much more confused look than he usually had.

"Corn butter?"

-CT?-CT?-CT-CT?-CT?-

"Five six seven eight, five six seven eight..." Taylor counted off each step as the class was working on their next dance for the day. She continued weaving her way around each couple and to another one as she stepped around the ballroom. She even gave out little pieces of advice to each one that she passed by to help them out. "Harold try to keep up please. Micaela you're not supposed to stand that far away from your partner. Gerald please don't step on Jayla's foot. And...Carmella are you really eating an ice pop while you're dancing?" Taylor shook her head and made her way out of the group. Oh boy, some of these people were harder to work with than she thought. Perhaps giving them a snack break earlier was a bad idea. Now they were barely keeping up or getting lost easily. So much for not letting Fulton down.

"Taylor!"

Taylor turned her head to see an exhausted Chad running through the doors. This caught some of the members off guard and they stopped dancing just to look and see what was going on. They would either just want to see what was going on or be witnesses to what could turn into a lover's quarrel. Either way, at least in some of their cases, if it got them out of dancing for the last few dances then they wouldn't mind one bit. Taylor, on the other hand, reluctantly faced Chad as she turned away from the class. She tried to keep a straight face, though her tone either spoke with irritation, nervousness, or a combination of the two. And who could blame her, after the way they ended things yesterday? Two words: not pretty.

"Chad what are you doing here? I'm in the middle of something." Taylor told him, making sure to lower her voice in front of the people.

"It's important. We need to talk, now." Chad replied.

"How bad can it be?" Taylor asked.

"It's bad enough that someone's gonna get in trouble whether you find out or not." Chad told her.

Taylor shook her head. "Find out about what?" she questioned. Realizing she had raised her voice that time, she quickly turned to the club members. "Um...everyone please carry on. I won't be more than five minutes." she told them. Dragging Chad by the arm, she pulled him out into the hallway. Well wasn't that just great? After all, taylor and Gabriella talking went so well in the hallway why not talk out there some more?

"This had better be good. You've got five minutes." she hissed.

"Ok." Chad nodded. Boy she sounded in a bad mood. he wondered why...oh wait, because he just dragged her out of her class. Yeah, that was it. "you haven't...been spreading anything have you?"

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"Jason came up running to me and Troy while we were on the golf course. He said it was about us." Chad replied.

But before he could go any further, Martha Cox walked over to them. "You sure you guys should be talking out in public here?" she asked.

"What?" Taylor raised an eyebrow at her Scholastic Decathlon teammate. "We talk in public all the time."

"Or argue." Chad added. "Look I really need to talk to Taylor about something. Can you please leave?"

"So you guys can talk about what you did yesterday?" Martha asked.

"There's nothing to talk about." Taylor shook her head. Then she looked at Chad and folded her arms. "Unless Chad's here to apologize about something."

Well he had been meaning to do that, actually. "Well that's not exactly..."

"To apologize for making you do it with him?" Martha interrupted.

"What?" Taylor gasped, her head snapping back to Martha. "Chad and I did nothing of the sort yesterday!"

"That's not what I heard." Martha shook her head. "I'd expect something like that from Chad, but Taylor for you to actually go along with it...what wild stories did he feed you yesterday?"

Quick tips about Martha. One, she was very smart. Two, she loved to dance. Three, she was a good friend. Four, she always gave people the benefit of the doubt like when everyone made a big deal out of Troy's name being on the callback for the winter musical; unlike most people who shut him out, Martha admired him for in a way coming out like that, as it allowed her to reveal her secret love for dancing. But number five, she was very protective of her friends and if she thought anyone was doing anything to hurt them then she would either talk to her friends or bring the situation right to a teacher or even the principal. Hence the reason why she was looking for answers now and why she didn't look too trusting of Chad.

Taylor just raised an eyebrow and shook her head. Something definitely didn't sound right. With no other choice, she slowly turned back to Chad. "What's going on Chad?"

Chad was about to open up and respond when Martha cut him off. "What's going on is that you both were busy yesterday."

"Yeah, we did go out after all." Taylor admitted.

"That's not all I heard." Martha said. "I heard you were both doing it."

"What?" Taylor gasped. she automatically turned to Chad. "What were you doing, lying to your friends about yesterday? Spreading rumors about things we never did?"

"I didn't-" Chad started.

"Actually Taylor, you were the one spreading it." Martha pointed to her friend.

"What?" she repeated, turning back to Martha.

Martha shrugged her shoulders. "My source tells me that you were seen talking to Gabriella about how you did it with Chad. I can't believe you'd give it to him so easily and then actually brag about it. That's not like you at all. What lies did he feed you yesterday?"

"I can't believe this..." Taylor shook her head.

"so you were the one who started it?" Chad asked her.

"Are you nuts? Why would I go bragging about us like that?" Taylor questioned.

"I don't know. to make it seem like we never fought yesterday?" Chad replied.

"Well we did, and I did nothing of the sort." Taylor retorted.

"Oh so you think I started this some how." Chad assumed sarcastically.

"Well it obviously makes more sense. You were the one bragging about when you got your first girlfriend. Why would this time be any different?" she argued.

"There's a perfectly good reason for it to be different!" Chad fought.

"And why is that?"

"Even if I told you, you wouldn't believe me. so why should I brother?"

"Because this is important!"

"Why don't you go back to your stupid dance class then? Cause clearly that was more important than I'll ever be!"

"you're putting words in my mouth again, just like you always do!"

"Oh yeah, and you seemed so excited to get away from the dance class."

"You know what, forget it."

"Dang right forget it. Cause it looks like your five minutes are up."

"With you or with us?"

"I was gonna say with me, but it sounds like you want em to be up with us."

"Well maybe I do!"

"Maybe I do, too!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

They turned on their heels and stormed off in opposite directions. Taylor made her way back into the ballroom and automatically commanded everyone to return to their dancing as she would keep an eye on them. she was more than furious with Chad. The fact that he actually blamed her for all of this...the fact that he was probably the one going around and bragging about it...he was probably the one who eavesdropped on Taylor when she was talking to Gabriella and then just decided it was ok to spread the nasty rumor. How could he do such a thing? To make matters worse he completely demolished her reputation. Just as she had predicted to Gabriella, if anyone did get the wrong idea about her and Chad then she would be looked down on and known as the school slvt instead of the school genius. And not only did it infuriate her, but it very much upset her as well. As for Chad, he made his way back to the green. He had more caddying to do. Anything to get his mind off of Taylor, after all. Why did he even consider apologizing to her after yesterday? She just assumed that because he's been with plenty of girls that he started this, when it fact it was her. And now they just broke up over it. so much for their record. And even if Chad were to tell her what he had been thinking before, there was no way she'd believe him. Not after now. And in his opinion, he shouldn't care. He shouldn't do anything to help her. And he certainly shouldn't talk to her. From now on she would just be a co-worker and classmate, nothing more. At least, that's what he had to keep telling himself. Too bad it had to go down like all this.

-DX-DX-DX-DX-DX-

Around seven at night, not too long after everyone had eaten dinner the Ballroom Dancing Showcase was finally able to begin. All of the partaking members stood in the middle of the ballroom dancing to the given music. There was at first a minor warm-up with the Cotton Eyed Joe to loosen up their muscles and reflexes a bit, then everyone was showing off their skills they had learned about the Fox Trot. It was one of the more complicated dance routines, as voted by all of the members. But My. Fulton was more than simply impressed. Taylor had certainly done her research on the dances and was more than happy with the results. He was sure he had the right student in charge of all of this.

"See Ms. Evans? I mentioned the events this year would go much more efficiently." Mr. Fulton said to Sharpay with a smile.

Sharpay Evans, one of the Evans twins and one of the most important members of the country club - which after all did belong to her parents - just folded her arms and nodded. "It isn't too bad, I suppose. And Mommy and Daddy did tell me to keep an eye on this for them while they attended an important conference in Japan."

Her brother, Ryan Evans, turned to her eagerly. "Think they'll bring us back something again? Last time they got me the light up Samurai action figure."

"And you enjoy that...why?" Sharpay inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"Because he made a very good dance partner and he's very flexible." Ryan stated.

"It's not even a foot tall." Sharpay replied.

"I know, that's why it's good practice to go over some of my new moves with." Ryan replied.

sharpay couldn't help but hit herself on the head. she had no idea how she was related to him sometimes.

In the meantime, the majority of the Lava Springs staff was watching the showcase happen. They were all dressed in very nice attire as opposed to their work clothing. It was directed by Mr. Fulton, of course, or else they probably wouldn't be dressed so nice let alone actually being there. and while Ryan was having quite a good time tapping his foot or bopping his head to the music, Sharpay found herself bored. She shook her head and made her way through to some of the employees, who happened to be her classmates. She flashed her best smile to Troy, who of course was Gabriella. not that Sharpay had given up on him of course, but after everything that happened with the Star Dazzle award and everything related to it Sharpay had decided it was enough trouble for the summer. She could always try and win Troy over once they started school again anyway; it was fine by her. Plus she could use the break. But that didn't necessarily mean it would be a break from the gossip and drama. A smirk came across Sharpay's face as she approached Taylor.

"So I heard you had a few issues with Danforth today."

Taylor turned her head to Sharpay. "What does it matter to you?" she asked, then shook her head. "Look Sharpay I'm really not in the mood right now ok? Can you please just drop whatever it is you want to bother me with?"

"Funny, because I heard a funny story about you two today..." Sharpay continued.

Taylor clenched her teeth in an attempt not to snap at Sharpay. She just wanted her to leave, as she was not in the mood to deal with any of this right now. Whatever 'this' would turn out to be. "Not now Sharpay..."

"Oh but I know exactly what went down." Sharpay smirked. "You actually did the deed with Chad. Funny, I never suspected you to step outside of the box."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Taylor questioned, turning to Sharpay.

"Well you always seemed like such a good girl. What's the matter? He finally found a way to win you over so he could say he got another girl and could add you to his list?"

Taylor shook her head. "I know you're making all that up..."

"It sure didn't sound like you were making anything up when you were talking to Gabriella." sharpay said, which made Taylor's mouth drop. "Oh and a little hint hon, next time you want to tell someone a secret don't do it in the hallway where there's plants someone can hide behind and eavesdrop."

Taylor's jaw dropped. So that's how everyone found out about such a lie. Sharpay was behind it all along! she should have suspected as much. "Why would you spread such a nasty rumor? You didn't even hear me out right and I wasn't even talking to you!"

"I simply thought it was something that needed to be told. It sounded like big news after all. McKessie swiping her V card for what you called a lunkhead for years? i suppose it shouldn't be that surprising. Oh, but don't feel too bad. I'm sure the same thing happened to Martha and she's just being a hypocrite about it." Sharpay replied.

How many conversations did Sharpay eavesdrop on anyway? On the one hand it shouldn't be surprising; she was the school's resident Ice Princess and gossiping queen. But that still gave her no right to spread things like this. Was it just for pure pleasure or was it something to keep her distracted from Troy for the remainder of the summer? On the other hand, Taylor was shocked that Sharpay would stoop this low. How would Sharpay like it if Taylor went around calling her names or spreading lies about her private life? Taylor shook her head in disappointment. Whatever the reason, she couldn't take it anymore. She just turned around and made her way out of the ballroom. While not one to get her feelings hurt easily, Taylor was known to keep them bottled up. If it was any emotion besides happiness, anger, or in some cases surprise, then she would most likely just keep them to herself and let it all out when no one was around. And that was exactly what she was going to do right now, leaving Sharpay only to shrug her shoulders as if it were no big deal and go onto watching the showcase, whose contestants were now dancing the Cha Cha Cha...or was it the Cha Cha? Oh well it was one of those.

-drama-drama-drama-drama-drama-

After the showcase had concluded and all the members left, only the employees were remaining in the ballroom. Mr. Fulton took the microphone and was prepared to make his announcement. "Thank you all for staying later than planned." he started. "I just wanted to say that some of you have been working very hard lately and deserve a break. My informants believe that as well." He shot a brief glance to Sharpay and Ryan - well mostly Ryan - then turned back to everyone else. "And they agree that you could use a minor night of relaxation here. So everyone grab a partner and dance away to the music." He turned the sound system on and some music began playing through the speakers. While everyone did seem a bit surprised, it didn't stop them from taking partners and going onto the dance floor. Troy went with Gabriella and Jason went with Kelsi, though he had been sending a few glances towards Martha, and Chad...he had no one. He looked all around in hopes of spotting Taylor but she was nowhere to be found. And he desperately wanted to talk to her. He didn't just want to apologize for their fight yesterday, but especially after today he wanted to make things right. He walked around the entire ballroom, searching for her. When he realized he was out of luck he decided to leave and see if she was in one of the other rooms or maybe knock and see if she was in one of the bathrooms. Just as long as she didn't go home yet. It took him a good ten minutes at least, but surely enough he was able to find her. She was sitting on one of the benches looking outside the glass window towards the pool, seeing what a lovely sight it was at night. In Chad's opinion, Taylor was a much lovelier sight. She was wearing the dress she had for the Star Dazzle talent show, but even a second time it looked dazzling on her. Chad was dressed pretty much the same was as he was that night as well, minus the tie. Yeah, don't ask. Taking in a deep breath he cautiously walked over to her.

"This seat taken?"

Taylor picked her head up and looked at him. She was caught off guard by him, but nevertheless she was in no talking mood. "I suppose not." she ended up shaking her head and looking down at the ground, her hands in her lap.

Chad gave a nod and sat down beside Taylor. He wasn't exactly sure what to do at first, so he decided to just open his mouth, see what came out...and hope it wasn't something stupid or insulting. "Look, about yesterday..."

"i think we have bigger problems than our minor argument yesterday." she interrupted him, refusing to make eye contact.

Chad nodded once more. "I guess so. But I should've been watching what I was saying. I didn't mean to make fun of your limits or whatever."

Taylor looked at him, not seeming at all pleased. "You don't remember what a thing about it dealt with do you?"

He couldn't lie to her now. Even if it would usually be what he ended up doing. "Not entirely." he confessed. "But I know it was wrong and I said things that I didn't mean to say and should've never been said."

Taylor's look softened, only a tad bit. "Well you didn't say anything wrong this time, believe it or not. And I suppose we both got a little out of hand with our fighting."

"Don't we always?" he attempted to make a joke out of it.

Taylor forced herself not to smile even though she did think it was a little funny. "Well since we have been doing it since third grade it had become a forced habit."

"And you totally love it." he teased.

"Ok, how do you figure that?" she asked.

"You always say the right things at the right time, like you know exactly how to push my buttons. And let's face it, you love pushing my buttons." Chad explained.

Now that got her giggling a little. "I suppose you're right."

Chad smiled and then looked down, twiddling his thumbs just a little. "I didn't mean to yell at you before. I really didn't think you would spread something, especially what was spread around today."

Taylor sighed; she picked up her hand and put it back down in her lap. "I guess it was just so much easier to blame you than myself, even though I was the one talking to Gabriella and we were overheard. But I always thought you would be the one to start rumors like that so it seemed like the thing to do. Just blame you and my conscience would be cleared."

"And how's that working out for you?" Chad wondered.

"Not good at all." she shook her head. She paused for a minute, then spoke again. "I found out who started it."

"Really? Who?" Chad replied.

"The Ice Princess herself, who else?" Taylor rolled her eyes.

Chad clenched his fists. "That little..." he couldn't even say what he wanted to call her. He looked at Taylor, who was raising an eyebrow at him knowing he wanted to continue. "Well, I could call her something but there is a lady present." Chad stated.

"how thoughtful." Taylor said, not sure how else to respond.

"Ok so aside from her having major problems, why would she do this?" Chad asked.

"Gossip queen. for the enjoyment of ruining other people's lives. A minor distraction so she wouldn't become infatuated with Troy yet again. It could be a number of reasons." Taylor answered.

Chad nodded, and tilted his head. "So if you weren't talking to Gabriella about us...then what about...?"

Taylor sighed. She knew she couldn't keep it hidden forever. "I told her how I had the talk with my parents."

"The talk of all talks?" Chad replied.

"That's the one." she nodded.

"I remember having that in like middle school with my parents for no reason." Chad chuckled. "My dad was coming home late that day so I went over to my mom and said, 'mom can we talk about when a boy and a girl are all lovey like?' And she knew what I was talking about right away. She practically jumped over the couch to get to her phone and said into it, 'honey you have to get home now, you need to have a father to on talk about the eh-eh and the mm-mm."

Taylor couldn't help but burst out laughing. "That's just like how my father responded. As soon as I told him, he got my mom right on the phone and told her to rush home and talk to me about it."

Chad laughed along with her. Now this was how it should be. They always enjoyed each others' company when it came right down to it. They just knew how to get each other laughing and having fun. But now the fun and the laughing was about to go right out the window, thanks to what Chad said next. "So...why the sudden interest in that talk with the parental figures?"

Taylor bit her tongue, then blew some hair out of her face. "I thought about our argument, and I was able to realize something. While we're clearly proof of the 'opposites attract' theory and we do communicate like all couples should, the one thing we just can't seem to get right is compromise. And I think that for a relationship to work, compromise has to be a big part in it or else neither of us are willing to give, just take. And you always seemed to be bringing it up...I wanted to make sure that I'd be ready and I wanted to know if I was ready to take a step like that."

"So...what did you figure out?" Chad almost shuddered to ask.

"Well obviously we're no Troy and Gabriella. We didn't just recently have our first kiss and it wasn't romantic either...plus you caught me off guard..." she started.

Chad just laughed. "Oh c'mon, you know you enjoyed it."

Taylor just laughed nervously and tucked some hair behind her ear. "But the thing of it is, if we see ourselves on completely different levels of our relationship or if we're not comfortable doing certain things with each other then it's not going to work. We need to be able to talk about when we're ready to do what. So I was thinking...maybe going ahead to second base a little more than we do wouldn't be so bad. But I'm not ready to skip right to third yet.'

"Well waiting wouldn't be such a big deal." Chad admitted. "I guess I'm just not used to having a girlfriend who wants to take things slowly. Most of the girls I've gone out with just wanna jump from one thing to another in one night. And I don't know if it's cause they like me that much or because they can just say they did something with me."

"And I'm not used to being in any relationship. You are my first boyfriend and I want to make sure I can get things right. And I am well aware that you do have more experience which..." Well she certainly wasn't about to say that it made her nervous. Taylor wouldn't admit to that at all. "...I did some research." she said, deciding to change the subject. "I read about when a couple are ready to move from one step to the other. Go on the first date and see if the feelings really are mutual or if it's just some fluke, go on a few more dates and make sure both are compatible, the first kiss..."

"so there's steps within the bases." Chad figured.

"Pretty much." Taylor nodded. "Gabriella did say we were stuck in the married couple phase instead of going right to the honeymoon phase."

"I know that one." Chad said. "It's when a new boyfriend and new girlfriend are all ga-ga over each other. I'd rather keep things like that private. Save public displays of affection for other times."

"And I'm not so keen on acting like a lovesick girl over one guy, especially when we always seem to be on again and off again." Taylor agreed. "So the way I see it..." Now what was the right way to word this? Heck she probably wouldn't even be able to say every little word. "...maybe we could go just from kissing on the lips to...the neck area?"

Chad nodded. For him it was an accomplishment. A big one at that. "And you know, you could always take off my shirt if you want..."

"And how do I know that won't insinuate something?" she inquired.

"Good point." he replied quickly. He rubbed the back of his head and thought for a minute. "Well...what if you ran your fingers through my hair? I do like it when girls do that."

Taylor cocked her head. "I could do that?" Yes, it was that new to her.

"Yeah. I mean, it's not gonna bite you or anything. At least...I think it won't." He madly ran his hands through his hair to make sure there weren't any teeth in there, which made Taylor laugh much more than she had earlier.

"So I do something to make you more comfortable and you do something to make me more comfortable. Neck for hair?" she wondered.

"Yeah. We can do that." Chad nodded with a smile. "Besides, it's way better than the talk with the 'rents anyway."

Taylor giggled. "So true, so very true." she agreed. "So...if anything does happen between us...I mean, because we are still teenagers and our hormones can get a bit out of control sometimes by human nature...what do you suggest we do if that happens?"

Chad thought for a minute. "I say we just go with it and see if we can snap out of it."

"Well I was thinking we try and control ourselves and if we can't then we at least be prepared." Taylor replied.

She and Chad exchanged glances. They both raised eyebrows at the same time, tilted their heads at the same time, and gave a nod at the same time. Either they were somehow reading each others' minds or actually knew what the other was thinking.

"How about we go with it and if we get what's going on we'll still be prepared?" he asked.

"I think that can work." Taylor nodded.

Chad smiled and nodded once more. So this wasn't so bad after all. "does this mean we're back together?"

Taylor looked down, then back at him. "Do you want to get back together?"

"Well...yeah." Chad admitted. "I want us to work."

"I want us to work, too." Taylor replied.

Chad stood up and held his hand out to her. "Maybe we can work it out over that dance? I don't have a partner."

Taylor smiled and took his hand, which allowed her to get up. "I think we can arrange that." she said.

"Good." Chad said with a grin. He kissed her and she kissed back. when they broke apart Taylor tilted her head.

"So was there something you wanted to tell me before?" she asked, remembering their argument. "Something you said that I wouldn't believe even if you told me?"

Chad could tell her now. He knew exactly what he wanted to say. But considering all that just happened, the talk that they just had, and now being back together, he wasn't sure if this was the right time. Therefore, plainly and simply, he decided against it. "No. It's nothing."

"Alright." Taylor nodded. "so let's get to our dance." She and Chad walked away from the bench hand in hand and back towards the ballroom. Unfortunately for them it wasn't too long before they ran into Sharpay.

"Going to get a room you two? Did you not have enough after yesterday?" she asked them, her hands on her hips.

The pair stopped walking and turned to face her. Taylor spoke first this time. "I'm not sure what your problem is Sharpay, but if you're really that desperate to have a life by ruining other peoples' then you really should get a hobby outside of acting."

"Sorry ice princess, but we're done with you. Why don't you go back to bugging Troy already? We've got nothing to do with you." Chad added.

"You honestly think that's all I'm out to do?" Sharpay asked. "Sounds to me like you're the ones with no lives."

"Well unlike you, we've got someplace to be." Chad told her. "I've got a girlfriend to dace with." He looked at Taylor and smiled at her. "May I escort you back to the ballroom?"

"How gentlemanly of you." she replied with a smile and a giggle. "I'd be honored."

Sharpay rolled her eyes as the two of them walked away. "you sure you don't want to get a room with that?"

Taylor turned her head slightly towards Sharpay as she and Chad walked away. "Do you maybe want to get a dance partner for once?" she teased before she and Chad were out of sight.

Sharpay folded her arms and huffed. Why, she'd never been so insulted. How could anyone say that to her? That was low even for them. Why wait until she.... Sharpay stopped and thought for a minute. "I wonder where Ryan's keeping that Samurai action figure. I wanna see if it's as good a dance partner as he says."

* * *

Ok not exactly the best ending but I was attempting to make it slightly funny. and now you know why this chapter was Rated T as well. i didn't mean to make Sharpay seem so evil, because I know she's not that much of a devil woman. Well, not like Cruella DeVille anyway. XD And the important thing is that we know everything worked out between Chad and Taylor. So what did we learn in school today? We learned the evils of rumors, we learned how important communication is between people, and we learned that violence for violence only leads to more violence. Wait a minute, that doesn't sound right. Bleh, stupid TV. I knew something was distracting me while I was writing the first half of this. Or maybe it was arguing instead of violence. Eh, something like that. So hopefully my next update with another story will be Monday. I wanted to updated my Deleted HSM Scenes yesterday but the chance never came up. So if I'm lucky enough, the next chapter of that should be up sometime this coming week. Well when I'm not at work. That one's almost done, Oneshots The Future of HSM has one more chapter to go, and this one is almost halfway done. So after all these are taken care of I do plan to mainly focus on Beauty and the Beast HSM style, unless I do a few oneshots in between or something. So that's all I can think of that I need to tell you, so I will shut up and leave you with the happy memories the end of this chapter has brought. ^^


	4. Thursday

Ok so last chapter I admit was...weird. Yeah, no better word to describe it. Anyway get the boring stuff out of the way first. Sorry this has taken a while to update, work has been a little weird and I ended up finishing my Future of HSM Oneshots first, followed by the next chapter of B&B HSM. So for those of you who have kept up with both of those stories, they are up and ready to be looked at. I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do about updates now, though. What I might end up doing is go back and forth between some of the stories. Like I might update B&B again after this one, or I could update my Deleted HSM Scenes. But yes, this story is half way done and there's not many more Deleted scenes to go. As far as other stories such as Classic Disney Meets New Disney, that is going to be completely random as I need to wait for an idea to come to me with a Disney song. Anyway, focus on this story for the time being. Thank you to everyone who reviewed the previous odd chapter and hope you enjoy this one...which will not be as weird.  
Disclaimer: By me nothing is owned.

* * *

"Good. Bad. Good. Bad. Eh. Bad. Bad. Ugh, plain horrible."

Taylor watched as Mr. Fulton looked through every one of the DVD's that he held in his hands and either tossed the to the side or behind him. Obviously the ones that were now behind him were all rejects. Now why all the movies, you may be asking. Well unfortunately it's not a mega movie marathon, although some say business would skyrocket if it were so. It wouldn't be too long before Movie Night began and ultimately, Mr. Fulton would pick two movies that would be allowed to show. movie night worked like this: the viewers would pick between the two movies and decide which one they would ultimately like to see. If there would still be a lot of people after the movie or there was enough time, then the second movie would be seen. and the ballroom was once again the perfect location for the event because it was big enough to fit all of the guests, including the employees. Too bad the Wildcats wouldn't really get much of a chance to see whichever movie, as they would be busy preparing snacks and getting them to the club , that was the price they had to pay.

Finally, Mr. Fulton disregarded all of the movies and shook his head. "I just don't think any of these movies are good enough for our Lava Springs members. Are you sure you have nothing more...for adults?"

"I have taken that into consideration, Mr. Fulton. But don't forget that some of your members have children and therefore the movie would have to be appropriate for young children, which means the highest rating could be PG." Taylor replied, holding her ground ever so strongly.

"I am aware of that. But really, how many of our members must have their children accompanies with them for movie night?" Mr. Fulton replied. "After all, a movie with an R rating clearly states that any children who see the film must be accompanied by an adult."

"Understood, sir. But do you really want young children to have a difficult time sleeping because whether they have a parent with them or not they will be scared out of their minds if they saw an R rated film?" Taylor quirked an eyebrow.

"We do not give member ID cards to the children unless they a part of the Evans family. All children carry around a copy of one of their parents' ID cards to gain access to anything they need. So how many children under age thirteen do you think there are here, Ms. McKessie?" Mr. Fulton folded his arms.

A smile came across Taylor's face. "I'm glad you asked that." She held out her clipboard to him and turned to a page full of graphs and pie charts. "As you can see, I've taken the liberty of checking your book which also includes minor files on all of the members such as their age, birth date, family members, and so on. If you look at my color-coded bar graph you'll see the ratio of how many children there are between ages two and thirteen, and the graph next to it shows how many families either have children in their teens or none at all. And if those graphs are too complex to read I also put together a pie chart so you could see the exact percentages in bold letters. A vast majority does indeed have children aged ten or under with less than twenty-five percent having no children at all. And, if I'm not mistaken, I do believe that a great portion of the members' children are enrolled in Troy Bolton's golf class."

Her smile became a smirk as she pulled the first few pages over the charts and held her clipboard back to her. Yes, she had indeed done her research. It was a piece of cake, right after asking Zeke if he could make some cookies for the evening, of course. All she had to do was log into one of the staff computers and retrieve some information on the members, followed by looking in the big book itself and reading all profiles in perfect pencil mark for herself. There was a very rare time when Taylor did not know what she was doing. This was not one of those times.

Mr. Fulton seemed a bit stunned by her work. He knew she was efficient, but this was taking efficient to a whole new level. One more piece of work like this and he'd have to give her a raise! The thought just made him shudder. Like a businessman such as himself could really afford to give a raise to someone who would merely be there for the summer.

"Excellent work...Ms. McKessie. Keep it up." he managed to get out.

She could only reply with a smile. _Come on, show me the money. _"Excellent enough to perhaps, oh I don't know, earn a small increase in my paycheck?" she asked innocently.

And the trap was set. "Let's see how tonight goes first shall we?" he suggested, barely regaining his posture.

"Of course." Taylor nodded, keeping a straight face.

Mr. Fulton took a moment to adjust his tie. "Now if you'll excuse me I think I'm going to calm myself with some hot chamomile tea." He turned around and left the room.

Taylor looked back at her clipboard and turned to her list for the day. Get list of approved movies from Mr. Fulton? Check. Hey, at least she knew what movies to go for now. Better than having a huge pile. That made it a check, not a not-check. DVD player hooked up? Starred. That was a big thing she had to remember; if the player wasn't hooked up just right then something was bound to go wrong and the big star next to it would be sure to remind her. POPCORN!!!! Check. She would be on her way to the kitchen momentarily to check with Martha; she had to make trips to the storage room to grab food at some points so there was bound to be popcorn there. Ask Zeke to make cookies? Check check. Well his cookies were good. It deserved two checks. Actually...they were quite delicious with just the right amount of every ingredient. Change it to three checks. But wait...something was missing from this list. Taylor smirked to herself and pulled out a pen from her suit pocket and quickly scribbled down a minor note.

_Stop by Chad 0=)_

With that note, Taylor took her leave from the room and made it her mission to check the next thing on her list. It was nearly time for dinner so that meant Movie Night was a few mere hours away. Everything had to be perfect.

-CT-CT-CT-CT-CT-

"Hey Zeke. How did the first batch of cookies come out?" Taylor asked as she entered the kitchen. Zeke was the first person that she saw, so she found it as the perfect opportunity to talk to him about his snacks for movie night. Just looking around the area she could see two containers filled with cookies, most likely the way to keep them warm until movie night officially started. Everything was bound to be set up by the movie and people could take as many cookies as they want.

"Excellent." Zeke replied as he opened the oven to remove another batch. "Two hours working on cookies and this is only the third batch. I've got chocolate chip and double chocolate chip, now I'm pulling out some sugar cookies."

"They look delicious." Taylor observed as she saw Zeke pull out the cookies. "How many more batches do you think you'll have time to make?"

"You tell me. You're the math expert." Zeke stated, putting the tray of cookies down. "I would like to make a few more batches of chocolate chip, and maybe another one or two of my double chocolate chip and sugar cookies. And let's not forget my peanut and banana cookies. They really shouldn't work together, but they do...in cookie form."

Taylor giggled. Zeke was always so serious about his baking and yet he always knew how to make jokes about them. "Well how long does it take to make each batch?"

"Chocolate chip and sugar cookies take about twenty minutes, double chocolate chip take more like twenty-five to thirty minutes, and my peanut butter and banana cookies could take up to thirty-five minutes to bake." he replied. "How many more hours till movie night starts, about two?"

"Yeah." Taylor nodded. "I suggest getting started on your next set of cookies right away. Make what you can. But one way or another you know everyone's going to gulf them down."

Zeke chuckled. "Maybe I should make more during the movie."

"Maybe..." Taylor started as she tried to reach for a cookie.

But nothing got by Zeke. He playfully slapped her hand with his oven mitt. "Hey these are still hot. And there's not enough for everyone. We'll be lucky if there's one left over to split for all of us.'

"I know, I know. I'm sorry." Taylor apologized. "But they look so good and you know no one can resist them."

"Feel free to try and get Chad to resist them. He was complaining about his feet hurting so he pulled every trick in the book to try and get my snacks. Don't worry, I didn't give him any. But I'll try and make a fresh batch tonight just for us and we can have them with lunch tomorrow or something." he explained.

"Chad hurt his feet?" she blinked. "What happened?"

"Beats me." Zeke shrugged. He pointed to the other side of the kitchen. "He's got his feet in a bucket of ice over there like a day spa. That happened after all that caddying with Sharpay, too."

"Any idea what he did this time?" Taylor asked.

"not a clue. But if he ever has to caddy for Sharpay again I'll be more than happy to switch jobs with him." Zeke said with a wide smile.

How any guy could be so head over heels for Sharpay, Taylor would never know. But she wasn't about to get into a debate with Zeke over that. The boy liked what the boy liked. "I'll just go check on Chad then." she decided, heading to the other side of the kitchen. And sure enough there was Chad sitting in a chair with his feet in a bucket full of ice. She remembered the last time that Chad was like this. He had been with Troy caddying for Sharpay and her family. Chad mentioned how he almost got his by not only Sharpay's golf ball so many times, but was also really close to getting run over by her golf cart. Something like that was understandable; how could any guy handle Sharpay with ease? Of course, the only reason that Sharpay never pulled any of that with Troy was because she was trying to seem all sweet and angelic around him. That, and because Sharpay was totally in love with Troy. But whatever happened to Chad this time, it couldn't be much worse than dealing with Sharpay. For all Taylor knew, it was just a ploy to get some attention. Or maybe to just have her tend to his every need. Taylor shook her head at him and walked over.

"Hey Chad."

Chad had his back resting against the chair he was sitting in, his arms were folded across his chest, and his feet were in a very large ice bucket. If this was a plot to get her attention he was doing a real good job with it. Her attention was peaked.

"Hey Tay." he greeted with a smile, lifting his head slightly to look at her.

"What happened to you? all you're missing is a manicure and the facial treatment with guacamole on your face and pickles over your eyes." she teased with a giggle.

chad chuckled. Boy that would be a hilarious sight to hoped he would never have to do that. "Busing tables suddenly became a major Olympic event."

"How so?" she inquired.

"Well it started off with just cleaning some tables to get ready for dinner. Then the first customer came in and every time I came out with a drink or appetizer he decided to change it and to bring it out faster. So I had to keep running back and forth to that same table a good five times. I'm amazed I didn't trip over something." he explained. "Then other customer started wanting my attention and I couldn't take care of all of them at once. Jason was supposed to be helping me but he decided to call in sick today, practically leaving me alone until any one else who bussed tables could show up. I kept screwing up orders and getting them mixed up, and to top it off I had to bring out the hot sauce for someone who wanted it on their burger and I accidentally spilled it on the floor, stepped in it, and slid right back into here."

Taylor was unsure whether or not Chad was lying. He was known to make up wild stories, however he could tell the truth when he so desired. He was relaxed now, but that was probably of the ice bucket and that she was there. But it sure didn't seem like Zeke had believed Chad when he even heard a faint idea of what had happened. Maybe she should just play along with it. If Chad was telling the truth she could make him feel better. If not...well at least they would be spending some time together during their work day.

"Oh poor baby." Taylor cooed. Yup, that was her going along with the story. Just string him along, just string him along. "Is there anything I can do?"

"Well my head does hurt a little." Chad whined, making a puppy dog face.

Taylor smiled and shook her head. Was there anyone who could ever resist a puppy dog face? Even a pathetic one like Chad had? "Alright." she said, giving him a peck on his forehead. "Let's put a damp towel on there for you."

"Thanks Tay." Chad said with a smile. He was feeling better already. "When do you have to get working again?"

"I have to finish preparing for movie night." she answered, placing a cloth under the running sink. "I've got to check on the DVD player and talk to Martha about the popcorn. The movie's in a couple of hours and there's going to be a PG movie followed possibly by an R rated movie should any adult members wish to stick around."

"you thought of everything." he chuckled.

"Fulton originally turned down the idea at first. He didn't believe me when I said that a lot of members had children under thirteen." she stated, placing the cloth on his head.

Chad sighed contently and relaxed. Boy that felt so good. "Too bad there may not be a scary movie. I was looking forward to protecting you from all the murder scenes."

"We'll be lucky if we can even stick around for the movie, Chad. We have to take care of all the customers first." Taylor reminded him.

"I know." Chad nodded. "But come on, you love it when i'm your body guard."

"you love it more when I'm your body guard." she teased.

Chad's eyes widened. "Hey wait a minute, I never..."

Taylor only giggled. she placed a finger to his lips and shushed him, followed by a wink. That made Chad smile. She was such a sneaky devil woman. A sneaky devil woman who he adored greatly.

"So how long are you able to stick around back here?" Chad asked after the silence of them just staring at each other ended.

"Not too long. You know I have to prepare everything." Taylor answered.

"Well everything's gonna go perfectly with you in charge. I got total faith in you." he promised.

"Thanks Chad." she said with a smile. "That means a lot."

"So can I count on you as my date for the movie?" he asked hopefully.

"Chad what did I just say about it?" she groaned.

"I know, I know. We may not be able to watch the movie." Chad complained. "Can we at least try to watch it from somewhere? A window? A door? something?"

"The movie was originally scheduled to be viewed outside. Everyone would be sitting on towels, the DVD player would be hooked up to a projector with a huge screen..." she replied just thinking about how wonderful it was supposed to be, not to mention romantic.

"But...?" he asked, knowing there was something else coming.

Taylor sighed. "I've checked the weather and it's supposed to rain tonight, possibly even thunder. No one can watch a movie outside in that weather. So Mr. Fulton told me to set up the entire ballroom with the DVD player and a smaller screen with the projector and everyone would watch from inside."

"That sucks. I'm sorry Tay." Chad apologized.

"Not your fault." she shook her head. "I was just looking forward to watching a movie outside."

"Really? how come?" Chad wondered.

Taylor shook her head. "It's kind of stupid."

"come on, nothing you say is every stupid." Chad told her.

"I've always wondered what it would be like to watch a movie outside. There's hardly any drive-in movies anymore so everyone just sits inside or goes to a theater to watch a movie. I always thought it would be so incredible and romantic to sit under the stars on a towel with some popcorn and friends and just enjoy a classic movie." she explained.

"I think that sounds awesome." Chad said. He never knew that Taylor wanted to do something like that so much. It made him wish there were something he could do, but if it was going to rain then what could he do? Not like he could stop it or anything. He always thought a good way to Taylor's heart would be a book or a really nice dinner or something. But it was a drive-in movie-esque thing.

"Thanks." Taylor said with a small would have thought that Chad of all people would think something she wanted to do was lame or corny. But he almost seemed into the idea. "Anyway I should get back to work. Are you going to be alright here on your own?"

"I'll try to live without you for a while." he said pretending to pout.

Taylor giggled. "Ok. You be good ok?"

"I will, don't worry." Chad nodded. "Oh and hey, are you doing anything next weekend?"

"I don't believe so. Aside from working. But on my day off next week I've got a family thing to go to. Older sister's coming in from college. She was studying abroad for a while this summer to try it out, and she earned a credit or two from it, I believe." she replied. "But I'm not doing anything on Sunday."

"Awesome. Can we make a date then?" Chad asked hopefully.

Taylor smiled and nodded. "I think we can do that. I'll pay."

"No, you don't have to. I always pay." Chad said.

"You said you were saving up for a car. Don't waste all your money on me so easily." she shook her head. "Besides if I play my cards right, I might be able to score a little raise."

"Are you sure?" Chad asked. "I mean I can take out a few bucks from the car fund or put something in or something, maybe even pay for the bus..."

she laughed and shook her head. She put her finger back to his lips to keep him quiet. "Relax Chad. It's fine."

Chad smirked. "You really want me to get that car don't you?" he teased.

"That's my secret." she said with a wink. "i have to get going now, so we'll talk again later?"

"Yeah, definitely." Chad nodded as he pecked her. "Have fun setting up."

"And you don't go getting in trouble for resting in a kitchen day spa instead of working." she replied. "See you later Chad."

Chad smiled as he watched Taylor leave the kitchen. Oh yeah, there was no way he was hurting now. He felt so much better. Now all he had to do was put a real smile on Taylor's face. And he think he knew just how to do it.

-CT-CT-CT-CT-CT-

By the time everyone was settling in for the movie, it was pouring cats and dogs outside. There was no thunder or lightning yet, but local weather reports said to be prepared. A thunderstorm could even be on its way and come in the middle of the night. Most employees were jealous of friends like Troy, who had the day off. And then there was Jason so he was home sick. Lucky him, he wouldn't have to go anywhere. But Troy wasn't there to lift spirits either. Lcukily, however, hardly anyone had to travel around the country club in the rain. Taylor seemed to have to do it the most, as she was in charge of all events and looking for certain club members. There even came a point within the first few hours that Taylor had to go find Sharpay and deliver a message from her mother. Taylor couldn't count all the places she had to check for the girl. She wouldn't be surprised if she caught a cold from it.

By the time the movie was ready to start the ballroom was filling up with members. In the hallway adjacent to the ballroom was a cooler full of drinks, and down the hallway was not only a popcorn machine but also Zeke at a table with his cookies and almost everyone who was working in the kitchen were at tables to hand out snacks. Taylor was in the ballroom helping members find free seats as soon as it got crowded. Her clipboard remained in hand as everything had been checked and double checked, and she had it if any mental notes had to be written. As soon as the last person was seated, Taylor left the ballroom and went over to her friends. She spotted Zeke first, whose table was now completely empty. Now Taylor and Zeke had become closer throughout their junior year. And as far as Taylor thought of him, she actually respected Zeke. He worked incredibly well especially with food under enormous amounts of pressure and did not only have the ability to follow recipes exactly, but also could be spontaneous with his creations and could somehow find a way to make food taste so good. Additionally, he was one of Chad's best friends so it was only more of a reason that they got along.

"Hey Zeke. Looks like everyone cleaned you out." Taylor observed.

"I'm surprised they didn't try to search me and destroy my clothes for extra cookies." Zeke joked.

Taylor giggled. "Speaking of jokes, have you seen Chad anywhere?"

"I don't think so." Zeke shook his head. "How come?"

"I haven't seen him since I went to the kitchen. He didn't send any messages or anything." Taylor replied.

"Maybe he's still in the kitchen." Zeke suggested. "Last time I saw him he said he was going to the bathroom."

"Well how long was he gone for?" she wondered.

"I stayed in the kitchen after that for like fifteen minutes and when I left to set up he still wasn't back." Zeke answered.

"you don't think he left do you? The weather's horrible out there." Taylor said sounding worried.

"Taylor I'm sure he's fine. you know Chad can take care of himself." Zeke said.

"I know." she nodded. "But I thought that by now if Chad was going somewhere he would let me or Troy know."

"Don't worry." he replied. "He's bound to be somewhere around here."

Taylor nodded again. "I'll go see if he's still in the kitchen. Let me know if you hear anything ok?"

"No problem." Zeke said. "Oh hey, do you think if I go in the ballroom I can get Sharpay to sit next to me?" he added hopefully.

Taylor opened her mouth to speak but decided against it. She merely shook her head instead. She swears that Zeke's unhealthy crush on Sharpay will be his downfall. Boy she'd miss him if Sharpay ever did anything to get rid of him. At least in a horror movie.

"See you later." she said quickly before walking away.

-CT-CT-CT-CT-CT-

Taylor entered the kitchen moments later and looked around for Chad. The kitchen was completely empty, as everyone was most likely near or in the ballroom waiting to serve the members. Taylor stepped over to where Chad was before. The ice in the bucket his feet had been in where completely filled with water instead of ice. The cloth that was on his head earlier was sitting on the chair. She took another glance around the kitchen and it was completely deserted. Where did he go off to?

Taylor made her way out of the kitchen and glanced around the hallways trying to find him. There was no way Chad could just disappear. Taking out her phone, Taylor decided to give him a call. She was really hoping that she wouldn't get his voicemail. She continued down the hall and tapped her finger against her arm, her clipboard staying held between her arm and waist. There were a couple of rings, but then there was a dial tone on the other end.

"Hello?"

Taylor smiled upon hearing Chad's voice. "Hey Chad. Where are you?" she asked.

"I'm working on something right now." he replied.

"Well, I asked Zeke where you were because you weren't near the concession stands everyone made for the snacks. He said you disappeared from the kitchen to go to the bathroom and were gone for over fifteen minutes. Is everything alright?" she asked.

"Don't worry Tay. Everything's fine." Chad promised.

"So tell me where you are." she said. "Please?

"You know I can't say no to you easily right?" he replied.

"I always thought it was just obvious." Taylor said innocently. "Just be glad you can't see my pouting face over the phone."

Chad chuckled. "Ok. Meet me by the dance studio in ten minutes. I've got something for you.'

"Do I get any hints?" she wondered.

"Nice try Tay." Chad said with a smile. "See you in ten."

Taylor smiled and rolled her eyes as they both hung up. Well she could try, couldn't she? Taylor made her way over to the dance studio. She glanced around the room as she stepped inside. One of the walls was covered with mirrors and one of those balance beams used for ballet students. And then of course there was the piano on the other side of the room. Taylor could recall the last time everyone was in there. Kelsi was at the piano and Ryan was doing all the choreography. Everyone had been dancing and having a blast. That was when Troy had gone and been a male Sharpette. But everyone still enjoyed themselves. And Taylor recalled the lunch she and Chad had after the dance rehearsal had been done. There was such a big smile on his face and it didn't even matter that Troy wasn't there. Of course it had to end when they needed to go back to work, but other than that it was perfect. Taylor smiled just remembering it.

With a little time left to spare, Taylor went a few doors down where the employee locker rooms were. She changed out of the orange dress she had for work and replaced it with a green light vest which she slipped over the blue shirt she had underneath the dress, as well as a green plaid skirt. Briefly adjusting her hair she left the locker room and returned to the dance studio. She took another glance around the studio and patiently waited for Chad. Hopefully it wouldn't be too long now. Moments later, a pair of strong arms were wrapped around her and there was a very manly laugh. Taylor giggled when she realized it was Chad.

"You sneaky conniving..." she started.

"Yes, i know. Feel free to continue." Chad chuckled.

"Oh I can think of plenty of things." she replied turning to face him. "How are you feeling?"

"so much better since you stepped in the kitchen today. No more foot pains, no more headaches..." Chad said with a smile.

"I'm glad I was able to help." Taylor told him.

"you always do." Chad replied. "I think you deserve a little reward."

"And whatever could that reward be?" she asked innocently.

"Come with me. I've got something for you." Chad said leading her out of the dance studio.

Dang. She was kind of expecting - and hoping - for a kiss. If she was lucky maybe this something was going to be good. And Chad seemed awfully excited about it. "Can I have a hint on what it is?" she asked.

"I don't wanna give anything away." Chad replied. "But I thought after everything you've been doing around here and working so hard you really needed something special."

"That's sweet. But we really should be working right now." Taylor stated.

"There's a lot of things we should be doing right now." Chad said. "One of the things I should've done was change out of these bus boy clothes. I look like garbage compared to you."

"No you don't. "Taylor shook her head. "You look just fine. I just thought I would change while I was waiting for you." She laced her fingers with Chad's as they held hands. "Don't worry, you look nothing like garbage. Garbage does not have tamed, soft, fluffy, curly hair like you do."

Chad chuckled. "you're just trying to butter me up aren't you?"

"Yes and no. Either way I'm guilty as charged." Taylor replied with a smile.

"Yes you are. I should punish you for that." Chad teased. "But if I did that, you wouldn't get to see what I have for you."

"where are we going anyway?" Taylor wondered as they walked up a flight of stairs. "What could you possibly have that wasn't in the dance studio?"

Now seemed like a decent-ish time to tell her. "Well you did say a few things earlier. So I wanted to do something really nice for you. And it's kind of outside."

This was either one of his secret grand gestures or else a way of him getting in trouble. "Chad what did you do?" she asked right away. Yes, a force of habit.

Chad chuckled. He should have seen that coming. "Let's just say I wanted to do something to make you happy."

"And what makes you think I'm unhappy?" she inquired.

"I don't. But you did mention a few things earlier and I thought it would be a good way to win you over big time. You did say something about wishing you could watch a movie outside instead of inside." he replied.

"But it's raining outside. And if it starts thundering and lightning the worse possibly idea would be to have something like a movie outside." Taylor told him.

"I know. But I came prepared." Chad said. "I'll show you." He continued leading her up the stairs. When they reached the top floor there was nothing but a door. Leaning up against the wall was a closed umbrella. Chad picked it up and opened the door. He stuck out the umbrella first and opened it, then led Taylor out. They were outside. But it wasn't on the golf course or by the pool or anywhere near that area. They were on the roof. All that there was on there besides them was a laptop and a towel.

Taylor took in the sights. It wasn't much but she knew it still meant something. "Chad what is this?"

"We couldn't really bring any big technological stuff out here. And I knew if we went on the golf course we'd get caught." he explained. "So i figured the roof would be perfect. I mean, not perfect as in comfortable or anything, but perfect so we could do this."

"And the laptop?" she asked. "It's not short-circuiting or anything."

"Doesn't it look different to you?" Chad replied. The umbrella protecting them both from the rain he took her over to the travel-sized computer. "Take a good look at it."

Taylor knelt down and ran her fingers against its surface. "A covering."

Chad nodded. "I put that on to protect it from getting wet. There's a DVD in the CD drive. We can use it to watch a movie."

Taylor stood up and turned back to face him. "Chad, in the rain?"

"I know it's not exactly what you probably had in mind. And I know it's not exactly dry either..." he started.

Taylor shook her head. "It's perfect. You don't have to change a thing. You didn't have to go through so much trouble."

"I'd say you're worth it." Chad replied. "I've even got your favorite movie in there."

"do you really?" she gasped.

"Lady and the Tramp. Just like you used to watch when you were a kid." Chad teased wrapping his free arm around her.

Taylor covered her mouth and felt her face heat up. "I should have never told you that. It's so embarrassing."

"So the future president has a soft spot for cheesy Disney films with dogs falling in love." Chad said with a smile.

"It's the concept of the film. A rich, classy, naive cocker spaniel meets up with a mutt living off the streets and surviving off different people he calls his owners and is a player but ultimately ends up falling for her and proving it by going back to her instead of another dog and saved the baby of the family from a rat who caused so much trouble." Taylor explained.

"And you love every minute of it." Chad said.

"I know, I do." Taylor confessed.

"Well now we can both love it." Chad replied. He took her over to the damp blanket on the floor and they sat on it. Chad's arm remained draped around her and the umbrella covering them in his other one.

"You didn't have to go through so much trouble." she repeated.

"I wanted to." he said.

"And it was incredibly sweet." Taylor said with a smile. She leaned up and pulled him into a passionate kiss. The umbrella still hovered over their heads; how Chad was able to hold it up still, even as he kissed Taylor back and wrapped his arm tighter around her...well let's just say it's amazing he wasn't too remained in that same position for a while, even furthering the kiss. Neither of them were bothered when the wind started blowing or when they lowered themselves down on the towel. Chad ended up on top of Taylor and her arms went around his neck.

"Wow...second base." Chad said with a smile once they broke apart. "You sure you're feeling alright?"

"Perfect." Taylor nodded. "It's just my way of saying thanks."

"You're welcome." he replied. "Maybe I should do this more often."

she smiled and shook her head. "you don't need to. Come on, we've got a movie of our own to watch."

Chad smiled and lay down beside her as he turned on the laptop so he could start the movie. He placed the umbrella down beside them so it partially covered them, though they could still feel the rain hitting against them. It didn't even matter that they were soaked or would probably get sick. They were there together and that was all that mattered. Chad wrapped both of his arms around her and pecked her on the neck, which caused Taylor's head to snap towards him.

"Sorry. Involuntary reaction." he replied quickly.

Taylor was quiet for a minute. Then another grin crept on her face and she shook her head. "Don't worry about it. It's fine."

"Really?" he raised an eyebrow.

She thought for a minute and then nodded. "Yeah."

Chad smiled and lay his head down beside her. Taylor's head was at the crook of his neck and her hands fell on top of his as they watched the opening credits.

"You're amazing do you know that?" she asked softly.

"Yeah." he nodded. Then he looked at her and added, "So are you.'

Taylor looked at Chad and smiled, and he smiled back. And with the rain pouring down over them they shared another passionate kiss. Even if it did start thundering and lightning it didn't matter. Things were just perfect. After all, Lava Springs Country Club members weren't the only ones who had a movie night to enjoy.

* * *

There we go. I believe that is Thursday that is finished. After a crazy chapter I wanted to do a much more simpler one. I think this was a fairly fluffy chapter with nothing dramatic or anything big happening, just a nice sweet break from the stuff that can happen during stories. I know amazing, i was actually able to update two stories at once today. XD That's besides the point. I will probably either update B&B HSM next or Deleted HSM Scenes. I would say give me a couple of days just in case. I may or may not end up finishing HSM Scenes before going back to finish this story but I am going to get more organized somehow...because i haven't exactly touched my planning book thingy yet. 0-0 Anyway, thanks again for the reviews last chapter and for everyone who is enjoying this story so far. As usual, I hope this turned out to everyone's liking because who wants unhappy reviewers or readers right? And as usual I will shut up and let you guys be on your way with any other stories you need to catch up on. C= Yes, gotta have smileys in every a/n somewhere.


	5. Friday

Here we go with another chapter. We are now onto Friday, the ice cream social. We're almost done now. I know, maybe I should have waited longer for more reviews or something but for the record it's not my fault, it's my brains. So I don't think there's much to say here. Um...for those of you who are unaware, I have updated my profile and any updates on my stories, as well as posting them in the a/n's of my active stories, I am also posting them on my profile so hopefully that will help you all keep track. Now I will be starting school soon, but this should also be my last week of work so hopefully that makes you guys happy, meaning I should be able to get in a good amount of updates before school starts up again. So yeah, that should do it here and another thanks to everyone who reviewed the previous chapter. Now let's see what we can do with this chapter, shall we?  
Disclaimer: Me own nothing.

* * *

"Whoa Tay, slow down." Chad said as he watched his girlfriend rush through nearly every corner of the kitchen. He didn't think he'd seen her look more stressed all week.

"Sorry Chad, no time to talk." Taylor said as she continued running, dodging nearly everyone she could. Even Zeke was almost losing his balance carrying some fresh brownies he'd made with the help of the head chef and...was that fresh strudel he'd made, too? Wow it actually looked pretty good.

Chad raised an eyebrow as he picked up Taylor's clipboard. she had it on one of the counters from the time being, apparently placing a check mark next to everything that had been checked on. He briefly glanced over the list. Check ice cream in freezer, more butter pecan? It had a star next to it so it must have been important. Order chocolate sauce;, caramel? Check, so it had to be done or in the process of being done, knowing Taylor. Scoops??? Why were there even so many question marks next to it? EXTRA PAPER TOWELS!!! Again, why so many exclamation points?

"Thanks Chad." Taylor told him, snatching the clipboard from his hands. She scribbled a quick note on the sheet, which Chad didn't even have enough time to read before Taylor was about to rush out of the kitchen.

"Taylor what's going on?" he called after her.

Taylor stopped briefly to face him, knowing she didn't have much time to spare. "The ice cream social is today Chad. I need to go to the other freezer and get out more butter pecan ice cream. Then I have to run to the store in town to get more chocolate syrup. And buy more paper towels, because it's bound to get messy out there."

"and why are you so freaked?" he couldn't help but chuckle.

"Do you know how many people are going to be at this social?" Taylor replied. "I'm not sure what's going to be worse - preparing for the social or actually serving the ice cream. And you're the bus boy so you're going to have to bring them their food and remember who gets which ice cream at which table. This entire kitchen is going to be a madhouse this afternoon and we've only got three hours to prep for it."

Chad raised an eyebrow. "It's eleven already?"

Taylor sighed heavily. "Yes Chad, because some of us have been here since nine a.m. having a few other issues to take care of. Why do you think I'm rushing to check for everything two hours after arriving?"

He walked over to her and gently rubbed her shoulders. "Ok Taylor, relax." he said as calmly as he could. "The social is gonna go just fine. You just worry about getting all the ice cream we'll need back here and leave the rest of the job to us."

"I'm just saying that this is what happens when some of us are told the morning of the event to start preparing for everything when we should have a day prior to make sure we have everything in order." Taylor told him.

"Understood. And I'm just saying that you need to chill. Imagine yourself bathing in a chocolate sundae." Chad replied.

"I don't know..." Taylor shook her head.

"Do you need some more encouragement?" Chad asked.

Taylor was about to open her mouth to speak until Mr. Fulton walked into the kitchen. "Ms. McKessie, chop chop. This is not some game show called 'Spilling Secrets to my Boyfriend', this is time to get everything for the ice cream social. Don't make me consider taking away that raise."

"Of course not Mr. Fulton." Taylor shook her head, turning to their boss.

"Then get right to it." Fulton replied before leaving.

Chad raised an eyebrow and looked at Taylor. "Raise? What raise?"

"I'll tell you about it later." Taylor told him. She gave him a quick peck on the cheek and headed out of the kitchen. "Gotta go. Talk to you later."

-CT-CT-CT-CT-CT-

It didn't seem like much time had passed but in reality it was a few hours later. Not even half the guests were in the dining room for the ice cream social and already the Wildcats were going crazy. There was order after order and they were doing everything possible to get the bowls and such ready. The sad thing about it was, customers who already asked for their ice cream would most likely be asking for more with all of the dishes that they were giving out there would be almost no time to wash them once they were in the sink and there could end up being a shortage of bowls. When did anything dealing with ice cream become so complicated? Now everyone knew what the waiters and chefs felt like in Friendly's if they ever gave away free ice cream.

"I need five more chocolates!" Jason exclaimed as he burst through the kitchen doors. He practically pushed the sheet of paper with the orders into Zeke's hand, who was trying to lead everything through the chaos.

"Don't give me the note, tell me what to do! I don't have any time to read it." Zeke replied as he pushed the note back into Jason's hands and continued working on the ice cream dish he had started on.

"Well...all this busy work has to mean time is flying by fast, right?" Chad asked hopefully as he carried in a fresh container of whipped cream.

"Think again man. It's only been fifteen minutes." Zeke replied as he topped the current order with sprinkles and a cherry. He placed it on a tray with three other orders and called Troy over. "Dude, your table seven is ready. All four of them!"

Troy sighed as he rushed over to his friend. "Dude I'm not even supposed to be back here with the tables or anything. It's my job to caddy today." he replied.

"Things change at the last minute man, besides I'm sure Fulton if paying you double for this." Zeke said as he started working on the order Jason just brought in.

Martha looked up from the ice cream she was scooping into a bowl. "Chad you'd better get back out there. I think your tables are going to get restless."

"How many of them are even filled up?" Chad sighed.

"I've gone out there a lot. There's supposed to be hundreds of people out there. I think there's too many people for the tables." Jason said.

"Look we can handle everything back here. Just get a move on and take more orders." Martha told Chad. "If anyone asks then tell them it'll be about ten minutes. Hopefully they'll understand."

Chad groaned. "This is not what I sighed up for!" He closed the fridge and picked up his notepad, rushing out to his designated tables to take more orders.

As soon as he left, Taylor burst in through the other entrance, with her clipboard as usual. It was becoming a part of he body structure at this rate, since she carried it around with her every day. "Please tell me it's going swimmingly back here. It's a madhouse out there."

"They gave out too many ice cream choices." one of the Wildcats said as they brought in another container of chocolate. The guy was on the tall side with dark skin and his black hair looked like it was all back in braids. Another Wildcat was right behind him, one of the cheerleaders. Her skin was the same shade and her hair was straight and jet black. "you have no idea how many times we have to run to the larger freezer to pull out more chocolate ice cream." he continued.

"And we ran out of one of the toppings." the girl added. "We sent a big group out to buy some more stuff just in case. We can't keep running back and forth like this."

Taylor shook her head with doubt. "But I checked everything this morning. I made a list of all ice creams and toppings that we'd need."

"I think you just overlooked a few details." the female Wildcat told her. "I'm not even sure where we need more help, out there or back here."

"Just be glad we don't have to serve Sharpay out there." Jason said as he took the first of the orders Zeke prepared before rushing out.

"What if Mr. Fulton comes back here?" Taylor asked worriedly.

"I don't think there'dbeany room for him in here. The kitchen's gonna be too busy being flooded with ice cream." the guy said before putting what was on the cart away in the freezer.

"Why can't you get Kelsi to help?" Troy inquired as he walked back in, overhearing parts of the conversation. Luckily there wasn't as big a crowd by the kitchen doors as there was around the rest of the dining area. "She's out there playing music, I can get her."

Taylor shook her head. "No, Kelsi's entertaining the group with music and has to be back out there for tea time. She's going to be starving by the time this is over."

"Well I'm supposed to be caddying today and here I am back here instead." Troy told her.

"That's because Fulton told you when you clocked in that you needed to be back here and it was more important than caddying." Taylor sighed heavily. "Look is there any way we can get more organized back here?"

"Not a chance, we're already at our own stations. The only issue is fighting over what to get out of the fridge and freezer at the same time." Martha said.

"Well there has to be an easier way." Taylor said.

Chad burst through the doors breathing heavily. He almost looked like his apron was going to fall off. "Guys if we don't get more ice cream out there to those hungry people I think they're gonna pull our torches and pitch forks from under the tables and form an angry mob and chase us right out of New Mexico!"

"Maybe we're all taking on too much at once." Troy suggested. "Can we buy some time to try and get more organized?"

"We can't do any of that. We all have other jobs to do besides make all of this ice cream." Martha told him.

"We're lucky we can even talk while we do this at the same time." Zeke added.

Jason ran out with the tray of ice cream he was carrying. "I'm lucky I haven't fallen over yet! The ice cream would fall on my head and make me look like a clown!"

"Give him like ten more minutes. It's bound to happen. Zeke man, more orders." Chad said flinging his notepad.

"Take it to one of the other chefs, I'm covering Jason's orders." Zeke replied.

"Martha..." Chad started.

"I'm juggling Troy's orders." she replied. "Can you ask one of the other wildcats? Maybe Heffa? Or Britt?"

"They just came back from lugging like five containers of chocolate ice cream!" chad exaggerated.

"Molly's outside taking some of the orders. Should I get her in here when I go out?" Troy asked waiting by the doors for an answer.

"No, then you, Jason, and Chad are going to have to split all of the tables she has between you three." Martha replied, chopping a banana for a sundae.

"Maybe we need more help back here than we do out there." Troy stated.

"Well arguing isn't gonna get us anywhere. We have to work and we have to work fast without screwing up. We got people hungry for ice cream out there. We can't let them down!" Zeke said.

Taylor wasn't sure how much more of this she could take. Everyone was raising their voices and seeming so paranoid. There were verbal fights breaking out and everyone was clearly stressed. Taylor had been stressed enough that morning preparing for everything. Now it was even worse because she saw everyone else stressing out and the crowd outside was growing by the minute. People were only going to ask for more ice cream and no one seemed to have the time or patience to give them felt her heart pounding against her chest and she began taking multiple deep breaths. Oh man...oh man what was going on? What was she going to do? What was she going to tell Mr. Fulton? Taylor was supposed to be in charge of all of this and it was making her a nervous wreck. She dropped her clipboard and grabbed her chest as she felt herself hyperventilating, her breath becoming caught in her throat, and her head pounding with a splitting headache.

chad turned away from the anarchy to bring out some ice cream to everyone. He stopped when he saw Taylor leaning up against the wall, struggling to keep her balance. Automatically he became worried and rushed to her side. "Taylor? Tay are you alright?"

But Taylor didn't respond. She just couldn't bring herself to. The pressure and stress was just too much. Normally it would have helped to have Chad just standing next to her like he was now but it wasn't working. It wasn't helping at all.

Chad quickly put down his tray of food and placed his hands on her shoulders as she began sliding down the wall. "Tay are you alright? Baby talk to me." he pleaded becoming more worried by her hard breaths and her facial expression that just spelled freaking out. He didn't want to see her like this, she wasn't supposed to be this freaked. In the background Chad could hear everyone arguing, whether they were working or not. He scowled at how ignorant they could be of one of their friends just having some kind of panic attack on the kitchen floor from watching them. "Will you all shut up?" he practically yelled, standing up to face the group. At that instant all of the employees turned to face Chad, wondering what got him so worked up so quick. "don't you guys see what's going on? Taylor's freaking out over here and it's cause of all your arguing. Stop it, you're scaring the poor girl!" he continued.

"What?" Zeke asked in shock. "what should we do?"

"We need to get help." Martha said right away. "I think she needs some water. Maybe a place to get away for some peace and quiet where she can't get stressed."

"I'll go find Fulton. The guests out there can wait longer for their ice cream." Troy said quickly, being the most level headed of the group at the moment.

Chad nodded and carefully picked Taylor up, leaving her clipboard on the floor and holding her tight in his arms. "Tell him I'm bringing her out to the pool."

"Why there?" Jason asked.

"Cause there won't be any screaming there!" Chad replied before rushing out to get Taylor out from all the torture in the kitchen.

-CT-CT-CT-CT-CT-

The pool was so much more quieter and relaxing than the kitchen ever was. Maybe it was because today was slightly chillier than the rest of the week had been so not too many people wanted to go swimming. But Chad had made sure he and Taylor weren't near any of the guests and that they were in the most peaceful spot they could find. He had her laying down on a lawn chair with a beach umbrella behind it to shield her from the sun's rays. As much as Chad knew it was his job to be in the kitchen and help with the social, his place was out here making sure that Taylor would wake up and calm down. At some point between them leaving and reaching the pool, Chad wasn't sure exactly when, she must have fainted because her breaths were light and her eyes were closed. He couldn't blame her, of course. He should have been more concerned if it didn't happen at all. But this was not like Taylor so he knew something had to be wrong.

With no watch on him for once, Chad wasn't sure how long he was waiting by her side for her to wake up. But her eyes did eventually flutter and aside from a flushed face, she looked a little more relaxed.

Chad sighed with relief watching her wake up. He kept his hand over hers, where it had been the whole time, and gently caressed it. "Hey. Hey there Sleeping Beauty." he said softly.

Taylor grunted slightly, most likely trying to get out the last of the stress that had taken over her. "Chad?" she asked quietly at first as she woke up. "What happened?"

"you passed out. There was a lot of arguing going on in the kitchen and you freaked." he explained.

"That hyperventilating...I thought it was just a dream." she admitted. She then went to rub her forehead. "But I guess it would explain the headache."

"Are you feeling any better?" Chad asked.

"A little, I guess, now that it's quiet." Taylor answered. "How did the social go? Is it over?"

"I'm not sure." he admitted. "But you were taking all these deep breaths and grabbing your chest, I told everyone to shut up with their fighting, and Troy went to tell Fulton what happened."

Taylor groaned. That was not what she wanted to hear. "So the ice cream social was a dud."

"you don't know that." he shook his head.

"no, I do. Mr. Fulton put me in charge of it and not everything was ready, I screwed up on the simplest of things, there wasn't enough of everything around the club..." Taylor started.

"That's not true." he interrupted. "you knew how many people were gonna be at this thing and it was the biggest turn around all week, especially after it's been so quiet around here after the Star Dazzle awards. It caught you off guard and it was just too much to handle."

Taylor shook her head. "There's not supposed to be too much for me to handle. I know I can do everything."

"Maybe it was too much for one day." Chad suggested. "Tay it's not your fault. You were just trying to check on us and help out. We're the ones who screwed up, being so stupid with our rushing and all. The ice cream was probably all melted by the time we delivered it."

"You're just saying that to make me feel better." she replied.

"Maybe a tad." Chad confessed. "But Taylor, it's just one day. It's a summer job. Everyone's allowed to mess up once. That doesn't mean it's the end of the world."

"I'm just so used to everything working out for me and being able to juggle five things at once." Taylor sighed. "This time last year I was reading a chapter for Chemistry while writing an English essay for a summer assignment during a Saved by the Bell marathon at eleven at night. This year..."

"This year you're not doing school work." chad finished, looking her directly in the eyes. "It's real life, a real actual job. It's not exactly something any of us are used to."

But before either of them could say anything else, Mr. Fulton made his presence known as he walked over. "Ah, Ms. McKessie. I see you're awake from your little nap."

Taylor sighed and looked at her boss, mentally preparing herself for the worst. "I wasn't sleeping, sir."

"I thought you would be able to handle all this. And yet not even a forth way into the ice cream social and I'm told my entertainment director is passed out, the entire kitchen has stopped working, half the staff left the area, and people had to wait over fifteen minutes for their ice cream." Fulton continued.

"Mr. Fulton, if I could just have a few minutes to explain..." she started as she sat up on the chair.

"There's no need for explanations, Ms. McKessie." he replied. "My decision is final. There will be no raise for you and I'm going to demote you to bus boy until you can properly handle your job."

"Bus boy?" she gasped with wide eyes.

"Bus girl." he corrected. "Whatever the terminology you wish to use." He turned to walk away until Chad let his voice be heard and stood up.

"Mr. Fulton...."

The middle aged man turned to Chad and sent him a very mean glare.

Chad bit his tongue, trying to figure out how to win this guy over. "Mr. Fulton...your excellency, sir...with all due respect none of this was Taylor's fault. This is her first job. You gave her too much to handle."

"I was told that she was efficient and an excellent multitasker. I can see that I heard very wrong." Mr. Fulton said coldly.

"She is. there's no one efficienter than Taylor." Silly Chad, that wasn't even a real word! He realized that and shook her head. "Look my point is, you can't find anyone better for the job than Taylor. You gave her a lot more to do than she was used to doing all at once, especially in the morning. And in the kitchen, we were all going at each others' throats trying to figure out the best way to get the members their precious ice cream and that's what got to her. It annoyed her that we were fighting and the social wasn't going as smoothly as any other event and it made her feel like she did a terrible job. But my point is, she didn't do anything less of a good job. That's what Taylor does. She lives to please people and help them and she was just trying to help us when she came to check on how we were doing but we were too stubborn to listen to her. So don't get her in trouble." Chad wasn't even saying all that just to defend Taylor or her job. He knew how much this meant to her and he could tell she was scared of this new territory called failing...or possible failing. And he knew how badly she wanted that raise and there was no way he was letting Fulton take it away from her or his name was Delila Pumpernickel...and boy was he glad it wasn't.

Mr. Fulton crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at Chad. It was almost like he was waiting for him to back down or throw something else in. But when Chad said no more, the man tilted his head towards Taylor. "Ms. Mckessie?"

Taylor picked her head up and gave a nod to her boss, still trying to get over what Chad had done for her.

"Take the next half hour to clear your mind and we'll start going over what we need for the Round Robin Tennis Tournament tomorrow. Be sure to let your co-workers know that you're alright and see me in my office about tomorrow in no later than an hour." he told her.

"Understood." was all Taylor could get out, nodding. As Mr. Fulton walked away, Taylor turned her head to face Chad. She watched as he sat down at the edge of the lawn chair and she sat up completely so she was sitting next to him.

"wow..." Chad breathed, "That was almost really bad."

"Yeah. It almost was." she nodded in agreement. She placed her hands in her lap and was silent for a minute, probably getting her thoughts together. "I can't believe you'd say all that to help me out."

Chad smiled and gently nudged her playfully. "C'mon, you know it wasn't your fault back there. And hey, after today we'll be so sick of ice cream that we won't wanna see it for another year." he joked.

Taylor giggled faintly and shook her head. "i guess you are right about that."

"So you're feeling better than?" he asked hopefully.

"Yeah...a lot, actually." Taylor confessed as she nodded. She looked at Chad and smiled at him. "And it's all thanks to you."

Chad returned the smile. "'S just me being a good co-worker."

Taylor shook her head and pecked him on the cheek. "It's more than that. It's you being a good friend."

Chad turned his head to look at her. "And a good boyfriend?" he asked hopefully.

She smiled and nodded. "A very good one." she answered pecking him on the lips.

"Ooh, someone's got some sugar to spare on them." Chad said slyly.

"Well being around all that sugar in the kitchen I'm sure you needed a little for yourself." she replied, playing along.

"Then how about something tonight?" he wondered. "We can both have a little sugar. Maybe share some dessert. My mom can pick us up and maybe I can get her to drop us off somewhere and I can walk you home."

Now how could Taylor say no to something like that? Chad was so sweet like that you'd almost think he was made of sugar. "I can go for that. Anything but ice cream."

"How about a fruit salad?" he offered with a grin.

"I think we can do that." she agreed.

But Chad just couldn't resist asking, "Can I put some chocolate syrup on it?"

That got Taylor laughing. That was so not unexpected when it came to Chad. "Nice try, lunkhead." she teased. "But it's not happening." she got off the lawn chair and headed back towards the kitchen.

"What if it was the chocolate syrup that had the label 'with calcuim' on it?" Chad asked getting up.

"Still not happening." she called.

Chad struggled to follow her. "Just a little syrup?"

"Nope." Taylor shook her head.

"A dab?"

"Not gonna happen."

"A drop?"

"Never."

"One little dot?"

* * *

That makes Friday finished, doesn't it? XD Thought maybe there should be a day where it got to be a real mad house at the country club and really crazy as opposed to the way overdramatic crazy on Wednesday. I started this chapter probably almost a week ago, but I had some time tonight so I was really trying to get myself into writing the rest of this chapter. apparently it worked, cause now it's up. XD So that now means there are two more days to go and the week will officially be over. Can't say I'm entirely sure when I'll have Saturday done though, but I'm hoping to have it complete over the course of a week. I have a few different ideas for Sunday, so that might take a tad longer to do. So that's about it here and after typing this...I don't even want any ice cream especially not at almost 12:30 in the morning! lol Night everyone!


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